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A D D R E S S 



OF THE 



STARKSBOROUGH AND LINCOLN 

I! 



ANTI-SLA.YERY SOCIETY, 



^ 



TO THE PUBLIC 



PRESENTED 11th MONTH, 8tli, 1831. 



jMIUULEBURY: 

KNAPl' AND JEWETT, PRINT Li' 

18 3 5, 



I 



OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY 



NATHAN PAGE, President. 
JOSEPH WORTH, Vice President 
AMOS BATTEY, Treasurer. 
JOEL BATTEY, Secretary. 

COUNSELLORS. 

BENJAMIN TABER, 
NATHAN C. GOVE, 
THURSTON CHASE, 
GEORGE HARKNESS, 
LEVI GOVE, 
JAMES HARKNESS, 
JOSEPH CHASE. 



'U 



'0'-\ 



'^ ADDRESS 



Kespected Fellow-Citizens : 

Having associated for the purpose of advancing the general 
^ood, by united exertion for the removal of a great national evil which 
threatens to involve our beloved country in ruin, we consider it due 
to you, who have the same common interests with ourselves, to state 
explicitly our object, our reasons for seeking it, the means we propose 
for its accomplishment, and the principles which are to control our 
action; and due to ourselves and our cause, to correct some of the 
misrepresentations of our principles and designs, which our enemies, 
through ignorance, prejudice, or malice, are circulating in the com- 
munity. 

While we protest against being judged by the misrepresentations 
of those who are unacquainted with our views, we trust to the candor 
of our fellow-citizens, that when they shall have become fully ac- 
quainted with our principles and plans, they will not only pronounce 
upright judgment, but lend their aid in support of th@."6ame righteous 
cause, it is matter of surprise and regret, that in this enlightened 
communityj the existence of negro-slavery in the United States, in- 
volving, as it docs, the present and eternal condition of millions of 
the human family, has not more generally awakened the spirit of in- 
quiry; that ignorance has so long veiled our eyes, and prevented us 
from taking a distinct view of the horrid monster in his real form. M^- 
ny persons, well informed on other subjects, know very little of slavery, 
as it exists in the southern portion of lliese United States; — others 
seem not to be aware of the fact, that the people and government of 
the United States tolerate and maintain slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia and some of the Territories; and even some are hardly sen- 
sible that negro-slavery exists at the present time in our country at 
all.* To this prevailing ignorance may be attributed the facility 
with which the advocates of slavery circulate false accusations against 

♦ The failowing extract from an ariic'.e in the Christian Mirror, will serve to give an inUh'ng ol 
what may be : • _a. r u 

" Birney's letter wa? recently gu'r-n to a man, who has for several years been Chafrnran of th» 
Board of Selectmen in one of the arrest towns in a County m this Slate. He was requested to read 
it, and wp.s told that it was an article on slavery and colonization. He remarked, ' there are no slaves 
in this country, are there?' When do you think slavery was abolished? 'I don't know; I thought 
there was a lav/ passed that slaves should be free when they were twenty-one.' By whom was this 
law passed "^ ' The government.' What government ? 'Congress.' Such was th? state of knowl- 
edge of one of the fathers of the town, who aspires also to become a legislator." 

If a father of his town be so ignorant as this, what may we expect of the lower class of the inhab- 
itants but total ignorance in relation to this subject ? The following will serve to illustrate this poiiit : 

A member of this society says, that "recently, while being out ashort distance from home, sohcit- 
ing signers to a memorial on the subject of slavery, he found some three or four individuals who we^e 
surprised at being told that slavery existed in the United Slates." 

Thev supposed that all the people of color in tliis country were free, and that the tjtiastion in dis- 
|>ute between the Abolitionists and the Colonizationists was, •' v.-hat should be done with tham ?" 



the cause of Abolition ; and hence the necessity of the present ex- 
position and defence. 

Object. Our object, as set forth in our Constitution, to which we 
refer you, is, " the immediate emancipation of the whole colored 
race in our land ; — the emancipation of the slave from the oppression 
of the master; — the emancipation of the free colored man from the 
oppression of public sentiment,— and the elevation of both to an in- 
tellectual, moral, and political equality with the whites." 

By immediate emancipation, we "do not mean, that the slaves shall 
be turned loose upon the nation, to roam as vagabonds or aliens ; nor 
that they shall be instantly invested with all political rights and priv- 
ileges ; nor that that they shall be expelled from their native clime, 
as the price and condition of their freedom. But we mean, that in- 
stead of being under the unlimited control of a few irresponsible mas- 
ters, they shall really receive the protection of law : Tha{ the power 
which is now vested in every slave-holder to rob them of their just dues, 
to drive them into the fields like beasts, to .lacerate their bodies, to sell 
the husband from the wife, the wife from the husband, and children 
from their parents, shall instantly cease : That ihe slaves shall be em- 
ployed as free laborers, fairly compensated, and j^rotected in their earn- 
ings : That they shall be placed under a benevolent and disinterested 
supervision, which shall secure to them the right to obtain secular 
and religious knowledge, to worship God according to the dictates 
of their consciences, to accumulate wealth, and to seek an intellectu- 
al and moral elevation."* 

We are aware that many object to the term immeJiaie, for the rea- 
son, that the tremendous system of slavery cannot be overthrown in 
an instant ; but we see no inconsistency in the use of it when applied 
to these measures, because the authority of common usage sanctions 
the application of the term to any important public measure, if it be 
commenced without delay, and speedily urged to its completion. — 
" When any great object is to be attained by the united efforts of 
many men," says an able writer in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, " cer- 
tain propositions or doctrines are laid down and understood in common 
among them, as the basis of action. This is absolutely required by 
the necessity of the case. For instance, if a republican government 
is to be formed, the doctrine must first be established that the majori- 
tijmust ride. It is of no avail to object that this proposition is an ab- 
stract one — that it has never been exemplified in the practice of any 
republic; it is of none the less practical importance. Till it is dis- 
tinctly apprehended and admitted, nothing like a republic can exist. 

"Now take the case of iivo inillions of American slaves. The first 
thing to be done is, to agree what OUGHT to be done. Till this 
point is settled, action is useless. The grand question is, ought the 
SLAVES TO EE FREE? Supposc it to be replied that this depends upon 
circumstances ; — that they ought to be be free as soon as they can 
use their liberty with advantage to themselves and safety to their mas- 
ters ; but with regard to the great mass of them, this cannot be ex- 
pected ; therefore, they ought not to be free till they are properly pre- 
pared. Here is the doctrine of gradualism. ^^ 

* This definition of immediate cmam-ination is "iven bv the Emancipator, which « e adopt as our 
own. - . I 



Again, suppose it to be replied, •' that the slaves OUGHT to be 
made free NOW; — that those who have the power to free them, 
(and we believe that the inastcrs, individually and collectively, have 
the power,) oughl lo use it without any delay f — and here we have the 

DOCTRINE of i?nme£?lfl^2Sm. 

If any of our readers, by mistaking a plan of operations for a doc- 
trine of morals, entertain a misapprehension of the views and motives 
of Abolitionists, we would take the present opportunity of setting 
them right. To do this, we need only remark, that we have seen too 
much of the world, and the proneness of erring mortals to remain a 
little longer in their sins, to suppose that slavery in this country will 
be instantaneously abolished : nevertheless, we believe it will be abol- 
ished. We believe that the doctrine of immediate abolition, urged 
upon the understandings and consciences of the people of this coun- 
try, will effect this desirable object. 

Reasons. We advocate the immediate emancipation of the slaves 
for the following reasons : 

Because, Slavery is contrary to the law of God, and a gross viola- 
tion of the rights of man : Because it degrades and sinks to a level 
with the brutes, a being whom God has created in his own image — 
made a little lower than the angels — crowned with glory and honor, 
and set over the work of his hands ;* — drags him to the shambles, 
and sells him like a beast — tears asunder parents and children, hus- 
bands and wives, brothers and sisters — consigns them to distant, 
hopeless bondage, and subjects them to innumerable physical suffer- 
ings and disabilities : Because it is the fruitful cause of discord among 
the States — retards the prosperity of the nation — perils public safe- 
ty, and puts in jeopardy the existence of the Union ; and, Because 
it provokes the wrath of God, and exposes the whole nation to the 
severest judgments of Heaven. 

We advocate the emancipation of the free colored man, from the 
oppression of public sentiment : Because color is not crime, and de- 
serves no punishment. 

We advocate the elevation of the colored race to an intellectual, 
moral, and political equality with the whites : Because the white peo- 
ple of our country have debased them to their present degraded state, 
and are, therefore, most solemnly bound to seek their elevation. 

It is of no avail to object that the ancestors of the colored people 
now in question, were uncivilized and unenlightened, when taken 
from the coast of Africa: most of the present generation of slaves 
were born in the United States. Their native country is the same 
which gave the ivhite man birth. They are, therefore, entitled to the 
same privileges with the whites— to an equality with them, in an un- 
bounded sense of the word. But were v/e to argue, from the native 
condition of those who have been kidnapped in Africa, to their con- 
dition here, we should arrive at the same unavoidable result. While 
they remained in Africa, it is true, they were unenlightened ; but, 
their neighbors being unenlightened also, they enjoyed a perfect 
equality of condition with those among whom they lived. . It follows, 
therefore, that by kidnapping and taking them from barbarous Afri- 
ca to enlightened America, we have changed their condition from a 

*^ Vide Genesis i. 27, and Psalms viii. 5, (J. 



perfect equality with their neighbors to a monstrous inequality, which 
affords their whiter brethren an opportunity to defraud them of their 
rit^hts. It holds true, then, tliat we are bound to seek their eleva- 
tion. 

Means. We propose to accomplish our object, not by encoura- 
ging the slaves to rebel ; nor by any means which are contrary, ei- 
ther to the dictates of humanity, the gospel of peace, or thq. laws of 
the land : But, by a course of investigation and discussion ; such as 
the Constitution of the United States plainly indicates, when it says, 
" Congress shall make no law abriilging the freedom of speech, or of 
the press, or the rights of the people peaceably to assemble." By 
disseminating facts and arguments in relation to the situation and 
rio-hts of the enslaved, till we have roused the public mind to a just 
sense of their wrongs, and of the moral evils and the sin of slavery — 
till we have awakened a universal abhorrence of the slave-holding 
system, from Maine to Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the great 
western wild." If it be asked. What benefit will arise from a course 
of examination and discussion on the subject of slavery, in States 
where slavery does not exist ? we reply. That notwithstanding the 
form of slaverrj ex\sis only in one half the States, yet the spirit of slave- 
ry pervades the Union from one end to the other. We have need, 
therefore, to labor here ; — to reform public sentiment at home, before 
we go abroad. Were it not for the countenance and support of pub- 
lic sentiment in the free States, slavery were but a living death. — 
Remove this support, then, and slavery is swept away. If the discus- 
sion of this subject here, be so very harmless — if it be not calculated 
to exert a powerful influence on public sentiment at the South — if it 
strikes not a death blow at the very root of slavery, then why are the 
planters of the South so much concerned about the measures pursued 
by the Abolitionists of the North? Why liavo rewards been offered 
fur the head of William Lloyd Garrison? Certainly, this uneasiness 
of southern slave-holders bears ample testimony to the efficacy ofour 
measures: It proves that discussion here, operates upon the prfblic 
mind of the South, and affords cheering evidence that it will eventu- 
ally bring about a reformation of public sentiment there, and with it 
the downfall of slavery. But we have proof of this in practical re- 
sults ; for the leaven of abolition principles begins to work already m 
the slave-holding community : already have a Birney and a Thome 
arisen to plead the cause of the poor and needy f 

Pkinciples. Our action is based upon the great fundamental prm- 
ciple, that man cannot hold property in man; and shall be controlled 
by the principle of "redeeming love," which enjoins the doing unto 
others as we would they should do unto us. And here it may be prop- 
er to notice, briefly, a mistaken notion, which, we are sorry to say, 
has obtained to considerable extent in this enlightened community, 
" that the slaves are the real property of the masters— a kmd of prop- 
erty as inviolable as that of cattle and horses." But what !— proper- 
ty in men !— property in human beings ! '.—property m the images of 
God ! ! ! In the " original grant," man was constituted " lord of the 

* For a more minute detail of the measures we propose, sec our Constitution, 3d Art. 

1 These gentlemen were born, and now live, in a slave State. The latter is he.r to a slavo-"nh^^^^^^ 
tance, and the former, until he became an Aboluionist, ^vas a slave-holder.-V\ c need not pav that he 
has emancipated his slaves. 



earth:" "And God said, Let us make man in oar image, after oaf 
likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."* But 
we find no such words as these — " Let them have dominion over many 
He has reserved then, the right to control man, exclusively to him- 
self. But the slave-holder invades this right, and usurps the prerog- 
ative of Jehovah, as the serpent, the first slave-holder did, when he 
prevailed upon our first parents to obey him rather than their Maker. 
We maintain, therefore, that he who holds a human being in involun- 
tary bondage as his property, steals him, not only from himself, but 
from the original owner, God, who gave him being ; — that time can 
never make this stolen property his, nor diminish the guilt attached 
to the crime of stealing it; — and further, we maintain, that he who 
advocates the infernal doctrine, that man has a right to hold proper- 
ty in his fellow-being, virtually denies the right of God to the exclu- 
sive control of man, and thus offers indignity to the Supreme Being, 
Whatever ignorance, pride, or the selfishness of man, may advance 
to the contrary, slave- holding is a sin. In the book of inspiration we 
are commanded to do unto others as we would they siiould do unto 
us, — to love our neighbors as ourselves. f But will the planter say 
that he treats his slave as he himself is willing to be treated .'' — that 
he loves his slave as he loves himself.'' If so, let liim verify the asser- 
tion. Let him liberate his slave, or otherwise, let him take his turn 
in the field. Yes, if he loves his slave as himself, let him be master 
to-day, and to-morrow let hijn be the slave, and \\\s slave the master. 

Again, we read, " Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, 
and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;! to turn 
aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the 
poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may 
rob the fatherless. "§ And again, "Thus saith the Lord; Ye have 
not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his broth- 
er, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for 
you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the fam- 
ine. "|| Let the slave-holders ponder upon this. And again, " He 
that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if Ac he fovnd in his hand, he 
shall surely be put to death. "IF Indeed, there is no other book in 
the vvorld, which, from one end to the other, so completely tears up 
slavery by the roots. *f 

It may be asked, why it is not right to hold our fellow-men in bon- 
dage noiv, since the Hebrews were permitted to have bond-men and 
bondmaids of the heathen that were round about them? We reply, 
that the God against whom the heathen had sinned, had a right to 
punish them as he saw fit. He commanded the children of Israel 
" to overthrow them utterly, and quite break down their images," to 
"smite them and utterly destroy them" to "make no covenant with 
them nor shew mercy unto them,"JJ Will our objector now carry 
out the argument, and say that we should be justified in extirpating 

* Genesis i. 26. t Vide Mat. vii. 12, and xix. 19. | How completely analogous to the laws of 
slave-holding States, which provide for the maintenance and preservation of the slave-system ! - 
§ Isaiah X. 1, 2. || Jeremiah xxxiv. 17. IT Exodus xxi. 16. +t A dangerous book indeed! No 
wonder that the laws of the slave-holdinj; States guard so cautiously against the religious ins 
of the slaves ! If Exod. xxiii. 24, and Deut. vii. 2. 



tistruction 



Uie whole negro race? When the slave-holders of the present day, 
have obtained of the same Author of rights a licence to deal in the 
bodies and souls of men, then, but not till then, will we admit the 
comparison of Hebrew bondage with American slavery. 

Again, we hear the slave-holder apologize in this way : " Notwith- 
standing negro-slavery may have been very sinful in its beginning, 
perhaps in the days of my great-great-grandfather, yet it has been 
entailed upon the present generation, and therefore we are excusable." 
But we have yet to learn that a crime committed by the son, is less 
criminal, because the father was guilty of the same. Indeed, the 
guilt of the present slave-holders is greatly increased from their op- 
portunity of experience. The " fathers tried the system of slavery 
and found it bad — the sons looked on and saw all this, yet they adopt- 
ed the sins of their fathers." How completely applicable to them, is 
the denunciation of our Lord : " Woe unto you. Scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and 
garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say. If we had been in 
the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them 
in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, ye be witnesses unto your- 
selves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets !" 
The fathers have taken the negro from the coast of Africa, destroyed 
his freedom, and buried him in the sepulchre of American slavery 
The sons apologize for slavery as '-'a lamentable necessity" entailed 
upon them ; — thus, garnishing the sepulchre that it may " appear beau- 
tiful outward, while it is within full of dead men's bones, and of all 
uncleanness." Well might the Savior rebuke the present generation 
as he did that which slew the last of the prophets : "Fill ye up then 
the measure of your fathers :" * * * " That upon you may come 
all the" innocent '• blood" of the poor Africans, " shed" from the 
commencement of the African slave-trade to the present time. 

" Slavery," says Dr. Thompson, " is the very Upas tree of the mor- 
al world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all intellect languishes, 
and all virtue dies." The tree is evil, and tJie fruit is evil, and '• on- 
ly evil continually." 

Firstly, lis ejfecfs upon Africa are most disastrous. A late writer"" 
thus describes it : " All along the shores of this devoted country, ter- 
ror and distrust prevail. The natives never venture out without arms, 
when a vessel is in sight, and skulk through their own fields, as if 
watched by a panther. All their worst passions are called into full 
exercise, and all their kindlier feelings smothered. Treachery, fraud, 
and violence, desolate the country, rend asunder the dearest relations, 
and pollute the very fountains of justice. The history of the negro, 
whether national or domestic, is v»ritten in blood." 

2d. The effect oj the system on the condition of the slave, is such as lan- 
ffuafre is unable fully to describe. The physical sufferings of the slave 
previous to his departure from his native land, are described by the 
above writer in the following language: "Husbands are torn from 
their wives, children from their parents, while the air is filled with 
the shrieks and lamentations of the bereaved. Sometimes they arc 
brought from a remote country ; obliged to wander over mountams 
and through deserts; chained together in herds ; driven by the whip ; 



' Mrs. Child 



scorched by a tropical sun : compelled to carry heavy bales of mer- 
chandize ; suffering with hunger and thirst ; worn down willi fatigue ; 
and often leaving their bones to whiten in the desert." '• Those who 
arrive at the sea-coast, are in a state of desperation and despair. — 
Their purchasers are so v^^eil aware of this, and so fearful of the con- 
sequences, that they set sail in iho night, lest the negroes should 
kno'vv when they depart from their native shores," 

During their passage to the place ui desiinuiion, tiieir suffering 
is unmingled and extreme. They are stowed by hundreds between 
the low decks, in a confined, sitting posture, Vv'hich Circumstance, 
alone, occasions excessive pain. In addition to iliis, they suffer 
stripes, and not un frequently death, from the cruelty of hard-heart- 
ed captains. 

"A child on board a slave- ship, of about ten mouths old, took sulk and would 
iTOt eat; the captain flogged it with a cat-o'-ninc-tails ; s'^earir.g that he would 
make it eat, or kill it. From this, and other ill treatment, the limbs swelled. He 
then ordered some water to be made hot, to abate the svveHif)g. But even his ten- 
der mercies were cruel. The cook, on putting his hand iiito liie water, said it was 
too hot. Upon this the captain swore at him, and ordered die feet to be put in. — 
This was done. The nails and skin came off. Oiled cioths were then put n.vound 
them. The child was at length tied lO a heavy log. Two or three days afterwards, 
the captain caught it up again, and repeated that he would make it eat, oi kill ir. — 
He immediately flogged it again, and in a quarter of an liour it died, and after th& 
babe was dead, whom should the barbarian select to ihrovy it overboard, but the 
wretched modier! In vain she tried to avoid the office. He beat her,"till he made 
her take up the child and carry it to the side of the vessel. She then dropped it 
into the sea, turning her head the other way that she might not see it."* 

Wc forbear io multiply instances of such abhorrent cruelty, not 
because they are few, but because they are so nv-i}y that '■ a large 
volume might be filled with such detestable anecdotes perfectly well, 
authenticated." 

According to Clarkson's estimate, "about two and a half out of a 
hundred of human l)eings die annually, in the ordinary course of na- 
ture, including infants and the aged ; but in an African voyage, where 
few babes and no old people are admitted, so that those shipped are 
at the firmest period of life, the annual mortality is forty-three m a. 
hundred. In vessels t!)ut sail from Bonny, Benin^ and the Calabargj 
whence a large portioti of slaves are brought, this mortality is so much 
increased by various causes, that eighty-six in a hundred die yearly." 
He adds, "It is a destruction, which if genera! but for ten year?, 
would depopulate the world, and extinguish the human race."f Ar- 
rived at the destined port, the slaves " are advertised with cattle ; 
chained in droves, and driven to market v.ilh a whip; and sold at 
auction with tiie beasts of the field." 

But it may be said that " the African slave trade has lung since 
been abolished, and that therefore, its hosrors and guilt belong exe'u- 
sively to a by-gone age." We answer, that notwithstanding the nay 
tions have declared it piracy to engage in this traffic, it is yet carried 
oil to considerable extent. The African Repository says — 

" It has been declared felony— it has been dechred jiiracy ; and the fleets of Bri- 
tain and America have been commissioned to drive it from the ocean. Stdl, ni de- 
fiance of all this array of legislation and armaiiient, slave-ships ndc triumphantly on 

* Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade, qiiotcd l)y Mr.= , niiiid. t Mrs. Child's A[y 
veal- 

B 



iO 

fJie ocean : and in these floating caverns from sixty to eighty tboiisan*! wretehe? 
are borne annually away to slavery or death. Of these wretcjies, a frightful n+rni- 
ber nr", v.ith an audacity that amazes, landed and disposed of within the jnrisdic- 
lion of this republic." 

Dr. Walsh, in his book on Brazil, published in 1S3!, says,' 

"Notwithstanding the benevolent and peiseveringexertionsof England, this hor- 
rid traffic in human flesh is nearly as extensively carried on as ever, and under cir- 
cumstances perhaps of a more revolting character. The very shifts of evasion — the 
necessity for concealment, and the desperate hazard, cause inconvenience and suf- 
fering to* the poor creatures in a very aggravated degree." 

But admitting, for the sake of argument, that the Foreign Slave- 
Trade had been entirely broken up, still, "its horrors and guilt be- 
long" not '- exclusively to a by-gone age." For those very crimes 
committed in the legalized prosecution of the Slave-Trade, are the 
price vvhich the fathers paid in the purchase of American Slavery — a 
purchase which they have left as a patrimony to their posterity. And 
this blood-stained patrimony, the present generation of slave-holder^^ 
inherit. But the slave-holders of the present day are deeply involved 
in a crime to which their prime ancestors in oppression were entire 
stranoers: We allude to the Domestic Slave-Trade of the United 
States; a Trade scarcely inferior to the Foreign in extent of misery 
or crime. 

"Dealing in slaves has become a large nusincss. Establishments arc made at; 
several places in Maryland and Virgiiiiii, at which tliey are sold like cattle These- 
places are strongly built, and well supplied with thumb-screws, gags, cowskins, and 
other whips, oftentimes bloody."— .Yi7es' Register, Vol. 'So, page 4. "But Washing- 
ton is the great emporium of the internal slavo-trade ! The United States Jail is a 
perfect store-house for slave-merchants; and some of tiie taverns may be seen so 
crowded with negro captives, tliat they liave scarcely room to stretch themselves ors 
he floor to sleep." — CAiW.s Appeal, page 31. 

The following facts will serve to illustrate tl)c cruel and heart- 
•ending separations from kindred, friends, and home, which daily oc- 
:ur in the prosecution of this nefarious traffic ; 

"A master in St. Louis, sold a slave at auction, to a driver, who was collecting- 
nen for the southern tnarket. The negro was very inteliiireiit; and on account of 
lis ingenuity in working iron, was sold for an uncommoiily liigh price — a'lout seven 
)r eight hundred dollars. He had a wile whom he tenderly loved ; and from whom 
le was determined not to part. During the progress of the sale, he saw that a cer- 
ain man was determined to purchase him. He went up to him and said, ' If j^oit 
)uy me, you must buy my wife too, for I can't go without her. If you will only buy 
iiy wife, I will go with you willingly; but if you don't, I shall never be of any use 
o you.' He continued to repeat the same expressions for some time. The man 
urned upon him, and with a sneer and a blow, said, ' Begone, villain ! don't you 
mow you are a slave?' The negro fislt it keenly : he retired. The sale went on. 
ie was finally struck off" to this man. The slave again accosted his iiev>' masteiv 
md with great earnestness and feeling, besought him to buy his wife, saying, that 
f he only would do that, he would work for him hard and OiithfuUy — would be a 
jood slave — and added with much emphasis, 'If you don't, I never shall be worth 
iny thing to you.' He was now repellerl more harshly than befon. The negro re- 
ired a little distance from his master, took out his knife, cut his throat from car to 
sar, and fell weltering in his blood ! — Can slaves feel .'" 

"The following happened in Campbell County, Kentucky. — This county hesdi- 
•ectly across the Ohio river, opposite Cincinnati. A slave had been purchased by a 
rader from the lower country. The flat-boat in which he was to go down was ly- 
ng at the village of Covington, ust opposite Cincinnati. The morning came on 
>vhich he was to go. He was brought on board in chains. His colored acqiiaint- 
mces gathered around him, to bid him ' good bye.' Among those who came was 
jis wift. She had followed him on foot from their home, a few miles in the interior. 



11 

'For some time she stood oh the boat in the silonce of despair—weeping, but speal 
ing not. But as the moment of separation drew near, she gave vent to her grief i 
wild and incoherent shrieks, tearing her hair and tossing her arms wildly into tij 
air. She was carried home a raving maniac. In this condition, siie continued fc 
weeks, raving and calling out for her iiusband. The family who owned her, whif 
ped her repeatedly beer use she neglected her work to talk and cry about her hus 
band so much."— [Communicated to the editor of the N. Y. Evangelist, by H. I 
Stanton of Lane Seminary, on the authority of students in that seminary, who hav 
been born and educated at the South.] 

Would that this were the extent of the slave-holder's crimes — tha 
the sufferings and hardships which the slave undergoes in the prose 
cution of the foreign and domestic slave-trades, were all for whic 
the master must answer in the great day of account. But the suffer 
ings and privations of the slave, and the cruellies inflicted upon hiii 
while in actual service, remain yet to be told. A picture of these ma 
be found in the laws of the slave-holding States; for in a country c 
republican government, the laws are "an index of the popular will. 
We ask your attention, therefore, respected fellow-citizens, to th 
follovv'ing propositions, showing the aspect of slavery, as exhibited b 
the legislative enactments of the slave-holding States.* 

J. Slavery is hereditary and pp.ri)etnal, to the last moment of the slave's earthl 
existence, and to all his descendants, to the latest posterity. 

2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated ; w!)de the knid o 
^abor, the amount of toil, and the time allowed for rest, are dictated solely by th 
master. No bargain is made— no wages given. A pure despotism governs the hi 
naan brute ; and even his covering and i)rovender, both as to quantity and quality 
depend entirely on his master's discretion- 

:i. The slave being considered a personal chattel, may be sold or pledged, c 
leased, at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for marketable commodi 
ties, or taken in execution for the debts, or taxes, either of a living, or a decease 
ijnaster ,•— sold at auction, either individually, or iu lots, to suit the purchaser, he ma 
remain with his family, or be separated from them forever. 

4. Slaves can make no cuntraets, and have no legal right to any property, real c 
personal. Their own honest earnings, and the legacies of friends belong, in point < 
3aw, to their masters. 

5. Neither a slave, or free colored person, can be a witness agamst any white c 
free man, in a coint of justice, hov,'ever atrorinus may have been the crimes the 
have seen him coiuinit: but tiiey may give testimony againct a fellow-slave, or fre 
colored man, even in case.s atFectiiig lit'^. 

6. The slave may be punished at his ma.«ter's discretion— without trial— withot 
any means of legal redrcs.-:,— whether his offence be real, or iuiaginary ; and th 
inaster can transfer the same despotic power to any person or persons he ma; 
choose to appoint. 

7. The slave is not allov.ed to resist any free man under any circumstances: hi 
only safety consists in the fact that his owner may bring suit, and recover the pric 
of his body, iu case his life is taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. 

8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, though cru 
el treatment may have rendered such a change necessary for their personal safety. 

9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. 

JO. The laws greatly ob-trurt the manumission of slaves, even where the maste 
IS willing to enh'anchise theitv 

11. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious instruction ani 

consolation. . r u i 

12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a state ol the low^ 

est ignorance. i • u \\tu 

13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right, wna 
is a trifling fault in the white man, is considered highly criminal in the slave 

* These propositions are taken irom Mrs. Child's Appeal, ^vhe^e they are fully proved by the ev- 
:dence of actually existing laws. 



12 

e same' offences which cost a wliite man a icw cluilars only, are punished m 
e negro with death* , , , 

14, "The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. 

But the laws, instead of exhibiting the darkest side of slavery, rep- 
jscnt it in its most favorable light ; as will appear to any peison oil 

candid examination ^f facts already before tfie public. f We quote 
le lollowing instances as examples of tlie cruelty vvhicii always ac- 
ompanies the system of American slavery : 

'•The following happened in South Carolina: — A slave being missing, several 
lanters united ui a negro-hunt, as it is called. They set out with dogs, guns, and 
orses as they would to chase a tiger. The poor fellow, being discovered, took 
■fu^o in a tree ; where he was deliberately shot by his pursuers." — Mrs. Child's 
ppeaf, p. 24 

The following account was originally written by the Rev. William 
>ickey of Bloomingsburgh, to the R-ev. John ilankin, of Ripley, Ohio, 

ho assures us that the writer was well acquainted with the circum- 

lance he describes : 

'•In the county of Livingston, Kentucky, near the mouth of Cumberland river, 
vcd Lilburn Lewis, the sou of JcfFerson's sister. He was the wealthy owner of a 
onsider^h'e number of slaves, whom he drove corjstantl}', fed sparingly, and lash- 
d soverel}'. The consequence was. they would run away. Among the rest was 
D ill-grown boy, about seventeen, who, having just returned from a skulking s))ell, 
i-assentto the spring for water, and, iii reiuruing, h't fall an elegant pitcher, which 
ashed io sljivers on the rocks. It was night, and she slaves were all at home. The 
lastcr had them collecteu iuto the most roomy negro-house, and a rousing fire was 
nade. The door was fastened, tliat no!"'o of the negroos, eilher through fear or 
ympatliy, sliculd attempt to escape : he then told them that thu design ot this 
fleeting •.vas to tench therj to remain at home and o'.jcy his orders. All fhir.gs be- 
ig no>v in train. Gcorge was called up, and by tlif ".cii.stance uf his younger broth- 
1, laid on a broad beiu'h or block. The master then cut off his ancles with a broad 
vo. In vn!n thj unhappy v'ctiu) screamed. Not a hand among so many dared to 
ntfc/ferc. Having cast the feet JiUo the fire, he lectured the negroes at some length. 
le tiien {noceeded to cut off his lii;;bs below the knees. The sufferer besought 
lim to begi!i vvith his head. It was in vain — the monster went on thus, until trunk, 
rms and head, were all in the fire. Still protracting the intervrilo with ieetures, and 
hrcatenings of like pur.ishment, in case any of them were disobedient, or ran avvaj^, 
:■ disclosed the irngedy they were compelled to witness." — Ide/n. pp. 32, 23. 

A writer ia tlio American Anti-Slavery Reporter for February, 
1534, says — 

'■At length I amved at the dwelling of a planter of my acquaintance, with whorn 
' passed the night. At about eight o'clock in the evening, 1 heard the barking of 
icvoral dcgs, mingled widi the most agonizing cries that I ever heard from anyhu- 
n.iii being. Soor; after, the geudeman came in, and began t • apologize, by saying, 
hz'i two uf his rui;away slaves had just been brought home, and as he had previous- 
y fried every species of punishi^ient urcii them without effect, ho knew not what 
;ise to add except to s^^t his blond-hounds upon tiicin, 'aiul,' continued he, 'one of 
.hc!T' has been so badly bitten tiiat hu has been trying to die. 1 am only sorry that 
le did not; for then I should not have been further trowblcd with him.'" 

AcTfin, the sainc writer says — 

" / s t have set in my window, night after night, whifc the cotton was being weigh- 
ed. I nave iicard the crack of the whip, without much intermission, for a whole 
h.our, from no less than three plantatic;;.^, some of which were a full mile distant." 
And uguin, '• I have known no less than a dozen desert at a time, frcra the 

* istroLi > says, there are seventy-one crimes in ihf- slave State?, for wliieh negroes are punished with 
death, and for" each and every one of these crimes the white ni.Tn suffers nothing worse than imprison- 
iiicr'. ill liie penitentiary. — Mro. CiiUd'v Appeal, p. 59. 

I We refer those who would form their opinion upon facts, to ' Bourne's Picture of Slavery in the 
U.-.lied States ;' In ' An Appeal in fuvor of that class of Americans called Africans— Bv Mrs. Child,' 
sf Boston; nnl to olhei publications of a lundred class. 



13 

''^anic pTantution, in consequence of tho overseoi-'ri forcing them to work to tlie ex- 
tent of their power, and then whipping them for not having done more." 

" A colored man, who was kidnappcil in Africa when a ciiild, and soKl to a |)lant- 
er in Tennessee, served on the same plantation, during the life of his first mascer, 
his first master's son, and grand-son, and was serving the fourth generation when 
decrepitude rendered him useless. In this helpless condition, when he was full a 
hundred years old, his hard-hearted master, to get rid of the expense of his mainte- 
nance, drove him from his possessions, leaving him to provide for himself or perish. 
He was subsequently found in the woods in a state of starvation, and removed to 
tliehouse of a Friend, where our informant* soon afterwards saw him." 

"When I was a boy," said my beloved friend, "on a short ramble from my father's 
liouse, I encountered a neighboring farmer, who had a colored citizen tied to a large 
log or a tree lying on the ground. Tho man was lying on his face, uncovered from 
his neck downwards. His driver had been lacerating him most mercilessh'-, until 
his back was one entire mass of blood an<l flesh cut up in pieces, which were com- 
mingled and slovvly amalgamating together. To complete the tortures of his writh- 
ing victim, who could scarcely move on account of the tightness with which his 
hands, neck and feet were bound to tiie tref, the citizen-slayer caught a large cat, 
and so fastened the animal, that in endeavoring to get loose, the cat's talons contin- 
ually tore tlie slave's already gory back, nntil the villain's vengeance was glutted? 
when he released the cat, administered the usual plaster, salt, pepper, vinegar, &c., 
and ordered the son of anguish to resume his Ia!)or." — I3ourne^s Picture of Slavery^ 
p. 12[>. 

But it may be urged that such instances of barbarity are rare e.v- 
ceptions — that in genera!, the masters arc as kind to their slaves as 
tliey can be, consistently with keeping them in subjection. But, we 
ask, How very mild must be the treatment to the slaves, even of those 
masters who mean to be as mild as they can, when severity is con- 
sidered to be indispensably requisite lor the preservation of order 
and submission on the part of the enslaved.-* On this point let us 
liear the testimony of a gentleman from Alabama, born and bred in 
the midst of slavery, and, if we mistake not, heir to a slave estate. — 
He was attempting to give a fair expose of slavery. — A.fter stating 
many facts relative to the cruelties practised upon the slave, he says. 
" Lest any one should think that in general the slaves are well treated, 
and these are the exceptions, let me be distinctly understood : Cnt- 
tl!ij is the rtile, and kindness the exception. ''^\ 

But there is another feature in the character of American slavery, 
which merits, if possible, greater detestation than this. We allude to 
the fact, that the system of slavery annihilates the marriage relation 
among the enslaved, and exposes to pollution more than half a mill- 
ion of American females. And here we arc reminded that we are 
treading upon delicate ground : but shall we forbear to mention 
facts in relation to a subject which involves the destinies of millions, 
because tiiey shock the liner sensibilities of the soul .'' No — this will 
never do : the " hidden things of darkness must be brought to ligiit :" 
the evils of slavery must be portrayed in living colors, and exposed 
in all their ugly forms to public view : they must be proclaimed in 
the ear and upon the house-top, that the people may know them, and, 
knowing them, apply the remedy. 

But the tyrant leaves not his victims here. He cannot rest satisfied 
with being master of the body, — with causing the subjects of his ty- 
ranny to be heart-broken, comfortless, and wretched, in this present 

* Samuel Knowles. j This exposition was made during a recent debate on the subject of slavery 
and its remedy at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. The testimony of the gentleman from Alabama, 
that ^^ cruelty is the rule and kindness the exception" was assented lo, and corroborated, by seven 
Mother gentlemen who were born and had alwavs lived in slave Slates. 



V4 

life. He must also assume to be dictator of the soul, and endea^oc 
to render them miserable in tliat which is to come, by carefully wilh- 
bolding from them all external means of obtaining religious instruc- 
tion, especially a literary education. 

" In Georgia, there is a law by which ivMte persons who teach any colored person 
to read or write, are fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisoned at 
the discretion of the coint. In Virginia, the same ofFence is fined not exceeding 
fifi:y dollars. In North Carolina, if a white person teach a slave to read or write, or 
give or sell him any hook, &c.. he is fined from one to two hundred dollars. In 
Louisiana, any white person, who teaches a slave to read or write, is imprisoned 
one year."* 

We^are expressly commanded by our Lord to "search the Scrip- 
tures ;" but the laws of the slave Slates make it a penal offence for 
any person to leach the slave to read, so that he can "search ihe 
Scriptures," or give, or sell him any book. How, then, will the Bi- 
ble Society carry out tlieir noble resolution to supply every family in 
the United States with a copy of the sacred volume.^ Well might the 
Savior say, " Wo unto you, [slave-holders !] for ye shut up the king- 
dom of heaven against men : for ye neither go in yourselves, neither 
suffer ye them that are entering, to go in." 

o. 7'be effect of slavery on the. free colored people, is extremely oppres- 
sive. 

The freedom of the free people of color in the United States is 
merely nominal. The prejudice of their whiter brethren bends thera 
to the earth : it excludes them from the society of the whiles ; — bars 
4he doors of all our literary institutions against them ; — deprives them 
of enjoyment among themselves ;f and subjects ihem to innumera- 
ble civil disabilities, — merely because their color is like that of the 
slaves. Even in the Northern and Eastern States, where slavery iias 
^ceased to be, prejudice, that monster of oppression, the first-born of 
slavery, still reigns with unlimited sway. When a colored mangoes 
to church, he must not " disgrace a pew,''' but occupy some secluded 
corner.— lie cannot eat at the same table with the white man, nor 
ride in the same stage ; and when he takes passage on board a steam- 
boat, he must not otVend the gentlemen in the cabin with his pres- 
ence — he must brave the weather, and remain on deck. 

While the free people of color are objects of universal obloquy and 
scorn, they are also harrassed with perpetual fears. They are ever 
in danger of being taken by the kidnappers, torn from kindred, 
friends and home, and dragged into distant and hopeless bondage. 

" In Philadelphia, though remote fiom a slave market, it has heen ascertained 
that more than ihiriy free persons of color were stolen and carried ofi:' within two 
years." | 

Dr. Torrey says, "To enumerate all the horrid and aggravated instances of man- 
stealing, wliich are knoivn to have occurred in the State of Delaware, within the 
recollection of many of the citizens of that State, would require a volume. In ma- 
ny cases, whole fat'nilies of free colored peojjle have been attacked in the night, 
beaten nearly to death with clubs, gagged and boiuul. and dragged into distant, 
liopeless captivity, leaving no traces beliind, except the blood from their wounds," — 
Mrs. Child's jlpptal, p. 31. 

But the nefarious practice of kidnapping freemen is not confined 

* Vide Mrs. Child's Appeal, p. 70, 71. 1 W^itness ilie nols wliich have recently occurred. | Vide 
American Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. 1, p. lOo. 



is 

within the slave States and their immediate vicinity ; it is common 
all over the country, and prevails to a greater extent than many are 
aware. Robert Roberts, of Boston, says — 

" There is a continual stream of free colored persons from Boston, New- York, 
Philadelphia, and other seaports of the United States, passing through the cala- 
boose* into slavery in the country." 

4. The effect of this system on the slnve-h'jJder is, vice, poverty, and 
perpetual dread. 

The effect of slavery on the morals and manners of the slave-hold- 
ing community, was "drawn to the life by President Jefferson, who 
lived and died a slave-holdei :"— 

"The whole conimerce," says he, " between master and slave, is a perpetual ex- 
ercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one 
part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see this, and learn to 
imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. The parent storms, — the child looks 
on — catches the lineaments of wrath — puts on the same airs in a circle of smaller 
slaves — gives loose to the worst of passions; aiid thus nursed, educated, and daily 
exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The 
man must be a prodigy, who can retain his morals and manners undepraved in such 
circumstances." 

The licentiousness which prevails in the slave-holding community, 
is amply proved by the great amount of mixed population among ihe 
slaves. f But these vices of the white men are providing a scourge 
for themselves. The colored population doubles in about twenty 
years; while the number of the whites increases very slowly, and in 
some places actually diminishes. Hence, the colored people must 
eventually be the stronger party ; and when this result happens, 
slavery must be abolished. 

That slavery exerts a withering influence on the interest of the 
South, is admitted by southern men. During a debate in the Virgin- 
ia Legislature, in the winter of 1832, Mr. Brodnax, a slave-holder, 
made the following remark : 

"That slavery in Virginia is an evil, and a transcendent evil, it would be more 
than idle for any human being to doubt or deny. It is a mildew which has bhghted 
every region it has touched, from tihe creation of the world." 

During the same session, Mr. Faulkner, of Virginia, speaking of 
slavery, said — 

" If there be one who concurs with the gentleman from Brunswick in the harm- 
less character of this institution, let me request him to compare the condition of the 
slave-holding portion of this Commonwealth — barren, desolate, and seared as it were 
by the avenging hand of Heaven, with the descriptions which we have of this same 
country from those who first broke its virgin soil. To what is this change ascriba- 
ble ? Alone to the withering and blasting effects of slavery !" 

5. The effect of slavery on the people of the free States, is a growing 
degradation of the morals, and disregard of the laws. 

Its evils are contagious. They contaminate all who associate with 
the slave-holding community ; for " evil communications corrupt good 
manners." Hence, to this cause, more than any other, may be attri- 
buted the increasing tendency to indolence and extravagance which 
prevails throughout this country. And hence too the lamentable de- 
clension of the people of this country from the principles and practi- 

* Jail. t Two ladies of the first rank in Virginia affirmed, that the northern citizens were totally 
incompetent to form any correct idea of a slave plantation. One of them remarked, " We are called 
■wives, and as such are recognized in law ; but we are little moie than supenntenden's of a colored. 
eera-gho."— Bourne's Picture of Slaver'j^ p. 92. 



IG 

ces of true republicaaisin. The [)ianters, by the constant exercise? 

of tyranny over their slaves, acquire a masterly habit of command : 

this they carry with them into our public councils ; and strano-e would 
it be, if the manners of those with whom they associate, did not in 
process of time become more or less tainted with the same despotic airs. 

If any evidence were wanting that we are declining from the re- 
publican principles of our revolutionary fathers, we have it in the nu- 
merous instances of disorder which have occurred within a few months 
past, to the lasting disgrace of tlie American country, and the Amer- 
ican name. The habitations of free, respectable, unoifending, Amer- 
ican citizens, have been assailed by mobs, the furniture demolished, 
and the inmates exposed to insults and violence; while the public 
authorities have, in some cases, either made only weak and unmean- 
ing eflbrts to restrain the rioters, or looked on idly as if delighted 
w'lth the sport. Such is the effect of slavery on the principles of the 
free ! 

6. The effect of this system on the politics of the United States, is, alien- 
ation of public confidence, j ealousy , and discord among the sister States. 

The interests of the North and those of the South, are proverbial- 
ly diverse ; and iniisi be, so long as the interest of the North is vested 
in the soil, and the interest of the South in the bones and muscles 
and souls of men. The legislation required for the support and pro- 
tection of slave-labor, is diametrically opposed to that required for the 
support and protection of free labor, lience, the South has uniform- 
ly pursued a system of policy calculated for the preservation and ex- 
tension of slave-power. She has obtained the immense territories of 
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, for a lasting slave-market ; and has 
increased the slave States, till she has twenty-live slave votes in Con- 
gress. By the use of this machinery — elected, not by the machinery 
itself, but by its owners — she has generally, on important measures, 
succeeded in carrying her points. f But when this has failed, she has 
uniformly resorted to threats of separation, and not unfrcquently has 
the North been awed into acquiescence. 

" If any proof were wanted that slavery is the cause of all this discord, it is furnish- 
ed by Eastern and Western Virginia. They belong to the same State, and are i)ro- 
tccted by the same laws ; but in the former, the slave-holding interest is very strong ; 
while in the latter, it is scarcely any thing. The result is, warfare and continual 
complaints and threats of separation. There are no such contentions between the 
different sections of y*ree States ; simply becauwe slavery, the exciting cause of strife, 
does not exist among them."* 

These are some of the evils of negro slavery in the United States — 
evils which should have a remedy. 

But it may be said, " We are not slave-holders — we have nothing 
to do with slavery : Why then talk about a remedy V It is true that 
we do not hold slaves ourselves ; but we pay the planters of the South 
for holding them, when we pay them for the produce of the slave's 
unrequited toil. The consumers of slave-produce are the mainspring 
in the system of slavery. They turn the wheel that " grinds the fiices 
of the poor," and the planters hold them on. So long as we forge 

* Vide Child's Appeal, p. 124. t John Q.uin(:y Adams, in his Speech on ihe Tanfl", Feb. 1834, 
said that " if'hc should go bank to the hisloryof this government from its foundation, it would be easv 
to prove that its decisions had been effected, in general, by less majorities than that, [the twenty-five 
stave votes.] Nay, he might ^o farthor, and insist that iha*. very represenlaiion had ever been, in faet, 
the ruling poiom of this government." 



t7 

the shackles which bind the slaves, and manufacture the whips with 
which they are driven ; — so long as we keep open a market for the 
products of slave labor; — so long as we are pledged to send out our 
militia to suppress insurrections at the South, whenever the slave shall 
assert his right to freedom, and aspire to be a man ; — so long as we 
deliver up the slaves of the South, who seek refuge amon<ist us ;* — so 
long as our colored citizens are liable to be seized and dragged into 
slavery ; -so long as there are twenty-six thousand of our feilou'-be- 
ings bound down in heathenisii darkness, under the galling chains of 
personal servitude, in the District of Columbia, Arkansas and Flori- 
da; — so long as " Washington is the great emporium of the internal 
slave trade ;" — so long as ours is a representative government, sub- 
ject to the will of the people ; it never can be true that " we have no- 
thing to do with slavery." And so long as the slaves are our fellow- 
men — our neighbors, and the commands of our Lord remain binding 
upon us, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," — " Whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ;" and so 
long as we participate in the crime and guilt of slave-holding, we 
are, certainly, most solemnly bound, not only to talk about a remedy 
for the evils of slavery, but to do something ; — to " repent instantly, — 
undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free ;" — to advo- 
cate the vnmediate substitution o^ right for ivrong — of freedom for op- 
pression. It is our duty to do our duty noiv. 

However dangerous the doctrine of immediate emancipation may ap- 
pear to some, the danger exists only in imagination. We know there 
are persons (and we envy not their feelings) in whose view it is asso- 
ciated with tlie conflagration of towns and villages— the roll of drum-^ — 
the yell of savages — the groans of the dying, and rivers of blood ; but 
all this array of the passions is entirely needless, and might have been 
prevented by the timely exercise of a little reason and a little patient 
investigation. Does not reason, and even nature itself, teach us, that 
if the slaves were raised to the full enjoyment of American liberty, 
their hearts would swell with s:ratitude ralher than revenge? What 
was the cause. of the dreadful massacres at Southampton, Virginia? 
Was it the liberation of the slaves, or the kind treatment of their 
masters.'' Was it not rather the loss of liberty, and the wrongs insuf- 
ferable inflicted on the slaves ? Yes, slavery itself is the grand cause 
of slave-insurrections. It goads the slave to desperation and despair, 
and provokes him to retaliation. Now remove the cause, and the ef- 
fect uill cease. Emancipate the slave and raise him to the condition 
of a MAN, and all apprehension of danger may be dispensed witii ; the 
planter may sleep safely and qaietly ; for by^tliis one act he will have 
transformed his most dangerous foes into grateful friends. 

The experiments which have already been made in other countries, 
all go to prove the utility and perfect safety of immediate emancipa- 
tion, both to master and slave. 

" Bolivar proclaimed liberty to bis slaves, and many piopiietors followed his ex- 
ample : nearly a million of colored slaves inhabited Colombia at that time, and a 
large part were immediately emancipated. M. Ravenga declares that the effect has 
been a degree of docility on the part of the blacks, and a degree of security on the 

*"Thou shall nol delivci uiilo Ins mallei the servint which ii escaped from his master unto 
thee." — Deut. xxiii. 15. 

c 



is 

«mrt of the whites, unknown in any preceding period of the history of that re- 
])ublic. 

" In speaking of the slaves captured by British vessels, and sent to Sierra Leone, 
(^larkson sa) 8, ' Tliey must have contracted as moiial a hatred of the whites from their 
sufferings on board ship by fetters, whijjs, and suffocation in the hold, as the West 
Indian from those severities which are attached to his bondage upon shore. Under 
these circumstances, then, we fin<l them made free ; but, observe, not after any ;jre- 
paralory discipline, but almost siiddeidy, and not singly, but in bodies, at a time. We 
find tiiem also settled, or made to liv8, under the unnatural government of the ivhites ; 
and, what is more extraordinary, we find their present number, as compared with 
that of the whites in the same colony, nearly as one hundred andffty to one ; notwith- 
standing which superiorit}', fresh emancipations are constantly taking place, as fresh 
cargoes of the captured arrive in port.' 

"The abolition of slavery in Mexico, was virtually immediate. The slaves were 
at once taken from the arbitrary will of their masters, and placed under law. A 
system of apprenticeship was established, allowing them to apply the compensation 
received for their labor, to the purchase of themselves and families ; and in seven 
years, slavery had ceased to exist throughout that great Republic. Dr. Walsh states, 
that in Brazil, there are more than half a million enfranchised persons, Africans, or 
of African descent, who were either slaves themselves, or are the descendants of 
slaves. He says, they are, generally speaking, well-conducted and industrious per- 
sons, who compose, indiscri/uinately different orders of the conuhuiiity. There 
are among tlicni merchants, farmers, doctors, lawyers, priests, and officers of dif- 
ferent ranks." — J\'eiv-York City Address, Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. l,p. 68, 

The St. Domingo revolution, notwithstanding the dreadful massa- 
cres which occurred, is very full in point. The circumstances atten- 
ding this revolution have been so industriously and grossly misrepre- 
sented, that we apprehend very few of our fellow-citizens are awar& 
of the real srate of facts. No sooner do we begin to talk of the libe- 
ration of the slaves, than the ignorant and presuming, and even some 
of the more intelligent and respectabi^j point the finger at St. Domin- 
go, and exclaim, " Behold the conseqaenees of your measures !" We 
deem it necessary, therefore, to quote somewhat largely the testinio- 
ny of Clarkson. In giving a history ol' the circumstances connect- 
ed with the revolution, he says — 

"When the French Revolution, which declared equality of rights to ail citizens, 
had taken place, the free people of color of St. Domingo, many of \\ horn were per- 
sons of large property and liberal education, petitioned the National Assembly, '.hat 
they might enjoy the same political privileges as the ichites there. At length the 
subject of the petition was discussed, but not till the 8th of March, 1730, when the 
Assembly agreed upon a decree concerning it. The decree, however, was worded 
so ambiguously, that the two parties in St. Domingo, the whites and the people of col- 
or interpreted it each of them in its own favor. This difference of interpretation 
gave rise to animosities between them, and these animosities were augniented by 
political ijarty-sjiirit, according as they were royalists or partisans of the French 
Revolution, so that disturbances took |)lace, and blood was slied. 

"In the year 1791, the peojile of color petitioned the Assembly again, but princi- 
pally for an explanation of the decree in qncsjion. On the 15th May, the subject 
was taken into consideration? and the result was another decree in explicit terms, 
which determined, that the people of color in all the French islands were entitled to 
all the rights of citizenship, provided they icere born of free parents, on both sides. The 
news of this decree had no sooner arrived at the Cape, than it produced an indigna- 
tion almost amounting to frenzy among the tvhites. They directly trampled under 
foot the national cockade,, and with difhculty were prevented from seizing all the 
French merchant ships in the roads. After this, the two parties armed against each 
other. Even camps began to be formed. Horrid massacres and conflagrations fol- 
lowed — the reports of which, when brought to the n)other-countrv, were so terri- 
ble, that the Assembly abolished the decree in favor of the free people of color in the 
same year. 

" In the year 1792, the news of the rescinding of the decree, as now stated, pro- 
duced, when it reached ?f. Domingo, as much irritation among the people of color^ 



19 

as the news of the passing of it had among tiie wiiiies ; and hostilities were renew 
ed between thetn, so that new battles, massacres, and burnings took place. Suffice 
it to say, that as soon as these events became known in France, the Conventional 
Assembly, which had then succeeded the Legislative, took them into consideration. 
Seeing, however, nothing but difficulties, and no hope of reconciliation on either 
side, they knew not what other course to take than to do justice, whatever the con- 
sequences might be. They resolved, accordingly, in the month of April, that tlie 
decree of 179J, which had been both made and reversed by the preceding Assem- 
bly in the same year, should stand good. They restored therefore the people of col- 
or to the privileges which had been before voted to them, and appointed Santhonax, 
Polverel, and another, to repair in person to St. Domingo, with a large body of 
troops, and to act there as commissioners, and, among other things, to enforce the 
decree, and to keei) the peace. 

"In 1793, the same divisions and the same bad-blood continuing, notwithstanding 
the arrival of the commissioners, a very trivial matter, viz., a quarrel between a 
mulatto and a white man, (an officer in the French marine,) gave rise to new disas- 
ters. The quarrel took place on the 20th of June. On the same day, the seamen 
left their ships in the roads, and came on shore, and made common cause of the af- 
fair with the white inhabitants of the town. On the other side were opposed the 
mulattos and other people of color, and these were afterwards joined by some in- 
surgent blacks. The batde lasted nearly two days. During this time, the arsenal 
was taken and plundered, and some thousands were killed in the streets, and more 
than half the town was burnt. The commissioners, who were spectators of this 
horrible scene, and who had done all they could to restore peace, escaped unhurt ; 
init they were left upon a heap of ruins, and with but little more power than the 
authority which tlieir commission gave them. They had only about a thousand 
troops left in the place. They determined, therefore, under these circumstances, to 
call in the negro slaves in the neighborhood to their assistance. They issued a pro- 
clamation in consequence, by which theij piomised to frive freedom to all tke blacks 
toho were willing to range themselves under the banners of the republic. This was the 
first proclamation made by public authoriry, for emancipating slaves in St. Domin- 
go. — It is usually called the proclamation uf Santhonax, though both commissioners 
had a hand in it ; and sometimes, in allusion to tiie place where it was issued, (the 
<:;ape,) the i)roclamation of the North. The result of it was, that a considerable 
Jiumber of slaves came in and were enfranchised. 

"Soon after this transaction, Polverel Jel't his colleague, Santhonax, at the Cape, 
and went in his capacity of commissioner to Port-au-Prince, the capital of the West. 
Here he found every thing quiet, and cultivation in a flourishing state. From Port- 
au-Prince he visited Lcs Cayes, the capital of the South. He had not, however, 
been long there, before he lound that the minds of the slaves began to be in an un- 
settled state. Tliey had become acquainted with what had taken place in the north, 
not oidy with the riots at the Cape, but the j)roclainatioii of Santhonax. Now this 
proclamation, tliough it sanctioned freed >m only for a particular and temporary pur- 
pose, did not exclude it from any particular quarter. The terms therefore appeared 
to be open to all who would accept them. Polverel, therefore, seeing the impres- 
sion which it had begun to make upon the minds of the slaves in these parts, was 
convinced that emancipation could be neither stopped nor retarded, and that it was 
absolutely necessary for tlie person d safety of the ivhite planters, that it should be ex- 
tended to tkz whole island. He w^as so convinced of the necessity of this that he drew 
up a proclamation without farther delay to that effect, and put it into circulation. 
* * * * It came out in Septetnber, 1793. We may now add, that in 
the month of Februarv, 1794, the Conventional Asi^embly of France, though proba- 
bly ignorant of what the commissioners had now done, passed a decree for the abo- 
lition of slavery throughout the whole of the French Colonies. Thus^the govern- 
ment of the mmher-couniry, without knowing it, confirmed freedom to those upon 
whom it had been bestowed by the commissioners. This decree put therefore the 
finishing stroke to the whole. It completed the emancipation of the whole slave 
I)opulation of St. Domingo. Having now given a concise history of the abolition of 
slavery in St. Domingo, I shall inquire how those who were liberated on these sev- 
eral occasions conducted themselves after this change in their situation. It is of 
great importance to us to know, whether they used their freedem properly, or 
whether they abused it. , i u- 

" With respect to those emancipated by Santhonax in the north, we have nothing 
to communicate. They were made free for military purposes only ; and we have no 
clue whereby we can find out what became of them afterwards. 



20 

" With respect to those who were emancipated next in the South, and directlj' 
afterwards in the West, by the proclamation of Polverel, we are enabled to give a 
very j)Ieasing accounr. Fortunately for otir views, Colonel JVIalenfuut, who was 
resident in the island at the time, has made us acquainted with their general con- 
duct and character. His account, though short, is quite sufficient for our purpose. 
Indeed it is highly satisfactory : — 'After this public act of emancipation,' says he, 
(by Polverel,) ' the negroes remained quiet botli in the South and in the West, and they 
continued to loork upon all the plantations. There were estates indeed, which had 
neither owners nor managers resident upon them, for some of these had been put 
into prison by 3Iontbrun ; and others, fearing the same fate, had fled to the quarter 
which had just been given up to the English. Yet upon these estates, though aban- 
doned, the negroes co7itinned their lahers,\\hei c there were any, even inferior, agents 
to guide them ; and on those estates where no white men were left to direct them, 
they betook themselves to the planting of provisions ; but upon all the plantations 
where the whites resided, the blacks continued to labor as quietly as before.^ 

^ * * "Such was the conduct of the negroes for the first nine months 
of their liberation, and up to the middle of 1794. Let us pursue the subject, and 
see how they conducted themselves after this period. 

"During the year 1795 and part of 1796, I learn nothing about them; neither 
good, bad, nor indifferent ; though I have ransacked the French historians for this 
purpose. Had there however, been any thing in the way ofoidragc, I should have 
lieard of it." * * * "I come now to the latter part of the year 1796 ; 
and here happily a clue is furnished me, by which I have an opjjortuuhy of pursu- 
ing my inquiry with pleasure. We shall find, that from this time there was no 
want of industry in those who had been emanci[>ated, nor want of obedience in 
them as hired servants: they maintained, on the other hand, a respectable char- 
acter." 

We have now examined the circumstance.^ attending the St. Do- 
mingo revolution, so far as necessary to show that the abolition of 
slavery in that island, did not [)roduce consequences ill to the mas- 
ters. No blood was spilled in consequence- no jives were lost; but. 
on the attempt of Napoleon to restore slavery, human blood was shed 
like water. Ciarkson thus describes it : — 

" In an evil hour, they [the planters] prevailed ujioii Bcnajiarte, by false repre- 
sentations and p.romises of j)ecuniary support, to restore things to their former state. 
The hellish expedition at length arrived on the shores of St. Domingo : — a scene of 
blood & torture followed, such as history had never before disclos -d, and compared 
with which ihough pi;miied and executed by whites, all the barbarities said to have 
been perpetrated l)y the insurgent blacks of the North, amount comi)arat!vcly to 
nothing. In fine, the French were driven from the iskuid. Till that time, the 
planters retained tlieir jiroperty ; and then it was, but not till then, that they lost 
their all. * * * In the year 1804, Dessaline.^s was proclaimed cm})eror 
of this fine territory. Here I resume the thread of my history, (though it will be 
but for a moment,) in order that I may follow it to its end. In process of time, the 
black trooixs, containiiig the negroes in qtiestion, wen; disliaiidcd, cxce|)t such as 
were retained for the jteace establishment of the army. They ulio were disband- 
ed returned to cultivation. As they were free whei:; they became soldiers, so they 
continued to be free when they became laborers again. Fron; that lime to tliis,thero 
has been no want of sidiordination or industry among them. They or their descen- 
dants are the persons by whom the plains and vallies of St. Doiumgo are still cul- 
tivated; and they arc reported to follow their occiqiations stiil, and with as fair a 
character as any other free laborers in any other quarter of the globe." 

Our readers v.ill have perceived by this time, that not a drop of 
the blood shed during the St. Domingo revolution, can be attributed 
to IMMEDIATE KMA.NCIPATIO.V. Wheu'tlie dccrce was announced giv- 
ing freedom to the slave, did he rise and kill his former master.? No : 
Kindness disarmed him. — Justice cooled the heart-burning of re- 
venge. But after he had tasted a little of the sweets of liberty— 
when Bonaparte's immanse armament under Leclerc invaded the 
island in order to crush him again to the dust, — then it was that mer- 



21 

>'y retired from the scene while the uliiic man's blood sealed tfie 
death-warrant of slavery ; — then followed those horrid massacres and 
conflagrations which have made so frightful a picture in the history 
of this unliappy island. The bloodshed which occurred during the 
civil war immediately preceding the abolition of slavery there, and 
the dreadful butcheries which followed Bonaparte's attempt to re- 
store it, instead of proving that immediate emancipation is unsafe to the 
community, remind us in tones not to be disregarded, that "violence 
of oppression engenders violence on the part of the oppressed ;" — that 
the sin of slavery will not always go unpunished ; — that if the slave- 
holder would avert impending judgments, he inuit " repent instantfv,^^ 
and '■'let the oppressed go free. '^ 

But we have yet another evidence. The recent "Act" of the British 
Parliament, abolishing slavery in the Britisli West Indies, which went 
into eflect on the first of August last, has not produced consequences 
in the least degree injurious to our cause. Where are all those fear- 
ful consequences — the blood-shed and burnings, wliich our enemies 
a few months ago so confidently predicted? Tliey have not yet oc- 
curred, and we trust they never will. We quote the following ac- 
counts from the 'Liberator' of September 13th : 

"The following notice is from the ' Bermiulian' of August 9th : — The first of 
August, (and even succeeding days] the period that had been so long and anxious- 
ly looked forward to, by all classes of the community, has passed away; nor can 
wo reflect without pleasure, on the i)eaceab]e, orderly, and highly exemplary con- 
duct of the people of color, on that, to them more especially, memorable occasion. 

" It was feared by some, that the circumstances connected with that day, would 
liave produced a degree of excitement in the liberated slaves, which might have been 
manifested — particularly under the influence of the less judicious of that class of 
people — in'an extravagant and unbecoming, if not in a disorderly manner ; but such 
apprehension is now proved to have been entirely widiout foundation. 

" Nothing could exceed their ret^dar, and, we must say, dignified behavior: no 
processions, no violent ebullition of feeling, no intemperate expression of joy ; and 
while, no doubt^ they felt the full importance of the change in their condition, no 
unnecessary trimumph was manifested." 

A correspondent of the New- York Observer, writing from Bermu- 
da, and speaking of t!ie first of August, says — 

"The day passed, and the day closed in happiness and peace. It was quite a 
holiday : The people of color aptly termed it ' Good Friday.'' The next morning 
ail was stir and bustle : mastej-s hiring their late slaves, or the emancipated running 
about to look for work.,' 

The New-York Mercantile Advertiser says — 

" By the schooner Renown, we have received Kingston (Jamaica) papers to the 
10th ult. It aj)pears from these, that no serious evils had resulted in that Island, in 
carrying into effect the emancipation law. There was much apprehension at 
Kingston for several days previous to the day when the law went into operation ; 
and on that day the shops were closed, and much alarm existed among the inhab- 
itants ; but the negroes received their boon, apparently with much satisfaction, and 
paraded the streets with shouts of ' Thankee massa ! thankee massa ! We fa free .'' 
Accounts from the other principal towns, up to the 9th, state that every thing was 
quiet, with the «xcep!ion of slight disturbances on a few estates at St. Anns." 

By an extract of a letter from a Moravian Missionary to a gentleman 
in New-York, dated at Springfield, Jamaica, August 11th, we under- 
stand that these " slight disturbances" arose in consequence of an 
imperfect understanding on the part of the colored people, of the 
■condition in which they were placed by the "apprenticeship act." 



•22 

He says, " No part of the island has been disturbed, except a few es- 
tates in St. Anns, wliere the negroes refused to turn out to work : but 
as their resistance was only passive, and no violence of any kind was at- 
tempted, I hope they will soon come to a better understanding oj their 
condition.''^ 

VViiat could the most sanguine abolitionist have expected or asked 
fur, more cheering than this ; especially wlien we remember that Ber- 
muda is one of those islands which have substituted immediate eman- 
cipation for the system of apprenticeship, established by parliament ? — 
Nor do those disturbances at St. Anns, under the apprenticesiiip sys- 
tem, militate, in the least, against the practicability and safety of im- 
mediate emancipation.* On the contrary, I'aey remind us of the fact, 
that a gradual repentance — a choosing of our own time for breaking 
off from our sins, is not only inconsistent in principle, but inefficient 
in practice ; and prove to a demonstration, that any remedy for the 
evil of slavery, other than the immediate and eiitire abolition of the sys- 
tem, besides being unjust in itself, will always be attended with evil 
consequences. 

If any one, after taking a dispassionate survey of the several instan- 
ces of trial above quoted, will presume to say that immediate eman- 
cipation is dangerous to the community, we ask him to cite one in- 
stance in proof of his assertion. We are quite sure it cannot be 
found in the annals of history or the experience of men. If more 
than half a million colored slaves in Colombia have been liberated, 
and the effect has been " a degree of docility on ike part of the blacks, 
and a degree of security on the part of the whites, unknown in any prece- 
ding period of the history of that republic ;'' if the captured negroes, 
who have contracted a " mortal hatred of the whites," have been re- 
captured, sent to Sierra Leone, and set free in bodies at a time, and 
have Consented to live under the unnatural government of ihe whites, when 
the number of the form.er,ns compared^with thatof the latter, has been nearly as 
one hundred and'ffiy to one f^ if the abolition of slavery in Mexico was 
virtually immediate, and no evil consequence has been known to fol- 
low ; if, in Brazil, there are more than half a aiillion enfranchised color- 
ed people, who are, generally speaking, ztT/Z-co/if/j/c/ca ly industrious per- 
sons ; if, in St. Domingo, about five hundred thousand colored slaves 
were let loose in a single day, with all the vicesofslavery upon them, when 
no notice had been given of the event, &. of course no preparation had 
been made for it, while the wrongs recently inflicted upon them by 
the whites were yet fresh in their memory, and " they continued to la- 
bor as qietly as before f^ if the freedom of eight hundred thousand col- 
ored slaves in the British West Indies, has been secured by an act of 
the British Parliament, which took effect on the first day of August 
last, and " the day passed, and the day closed, in happiness and peace," 
and no disastrous consequences have been known to follow since ; 
why may not the slave population of the United States, which consti- 
tutes about one-sixth part of the whole, be transferred from the arbi- 
trary will of masters, to the protection and restraint of lav. — to the 
enjoyment of" life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," with perfect 
safety to all concern'id ? 

Wo repudiate the notion, that " if the slaves were liberated, they 

* Recent accounts from iho West Indies bring news of oilier disturbances than those at St. Anns, 
but all occut ling iindf-r ihc apprenticeship iy$tcm." 



2^ 

would migrate to the free States, and there remain — a nuisance and 
a scourge to the lohites ; — firstly, because it is altogether improbable. 

While the free colored people are not permitted to enjoy the com- 
mon privileges of American citizenship in the slave-holding States, 
their emigration to the non-slave-holding States, is a necessary conse- 
quence ; but in case they were emancipated, and recognized by the 
law as ./American citizens, what incentive would induce them to leave 
the land of their fathers, their home, and their friends, and roam in' 
a strange country as vagabonds and aliens? But supposing they ivere 
free, and determined to leave the country of their bondage ; supposing, 
they were about to depart with all the world before them, would na- 
ture's finger point to the sterile soil of New-England, or to the bound- 
less region of fertile land in the West? 

And, secondly, Because it is impossible. 

The labor of the blacks cannot and will not be dispensed with by 
the planters of the South. J. G. Whittier says — 

"It is a fact, strongly insisted upon by our southern brethren, as a reason for the 
perpetuation of slavery, that their climate and peculiai agriculture will not admit 
of hard labor on the part of tl>e whites. That amidst the fatal malaria of the rice 
plantations, the white man is almost annually visited by the country fever ; — that 
few of the white overseers of these plantations reach the middle period of ordinary 
life ; — that the owners are compelled to fly from their estates as the hot season ap- 
proaches, without being able to return until the first frosts have fallen. But we are 
told that the slaves remain therej at their work, mid-leg in putrid water ; breathing 
the noisome atmosphere, loaded with contagion ; anti underneath the scorching 
fervor of a terrible sun ; — that they indeed suffer ; but that their hal)its, constitutions, 
and their long practice enable them to labor, surrounded by such destructive influ- 
ences with comparative safety." 

Now if the "climate and peculiar agriculture" of the Southern 
States " will not admit of hard labor on the part of the v»hites," how 
are our southern brethren to get a living when the blacks all leave 
them ■* It is folly only to think of it. 

Again, abolitionists are accused of seeking to amalgamate the 
white and colored races. But this is not true : so far from it, they 
desire that the- present disgraceful: system of amalgamation, which 
prevails throughout the slave-holding States, might be immediately 
broken up.* And we hope that our measures will eflect this desira- 
ble object. Indeed, we are quite sure that nothing short of the abo- 
lition of slavery can do away this horrid practice. 

But, says one, "If you would stop here — if you would be content- 

* The following exiract will serve to show what this system of amalgamation is: — "In the lower 
countries of Virginia,' says Bourne in his ' Picture of Slavery,' 'this white-^vashing svtem and these 
amalgamating piocesses, were carried on to a diabolical perfection. A picture of one plantation will 
serve for the whole. I was riding alone, and had pursued my solitary route from Charlotleville duiini' 
the whole day. Toward sunset my attention was arrested by a large crowd of colored people 
collected close by the road. * * + j think I counted nearly a hundred full-grown col- 

ored persons; the surrounding juniors defied all my arithmetic. There 'was every distinguishable 
shade of complexion from Gongo black to that sallow, which the ingenuity of an artist can scarcely de- 
fine. While 1 was musing u|)on this unusual display of domestic purity and American freedom, a true 
Virginian rode up aud accosted me, ' You are from a distance, stranger, I see.' I replied, 'Yes and 
have met with a curiosity,' pointing lo the field near us. ' Well, that's a good one,' he retorted. * 
* * * 'Sure enough, you know nothing about our ways here near Richmond.' I bewirod 
him to explain the secret to me. ' Major E.,' he retorted, ' is too cunning to buy negroes ; he breeds 
and sells them.' I asked, ' But what has that to do with the twenty different shades of colors on the 
faces of the motley group ?' He again laughed aloud, and then proceeded to divulge the Major's pro- 
cess of multiplying and white-washing his slaves. * * * * According to my com- 
panion's account, there was a regular system established, by which it was scarcely possible for a child 
to be born without having some approximation to white, beyond that of the darkest of its generators ; & 
ihal between the Major and his boys, and the overseer and his son and their other artificers, he presu- 
med that sc.'n he would net ha-= one real black person on the plantation." 



24 

6(1 vvitli the aholit'wn of slavery, well enough ; but you contend for the 
elevation of the enfranchised to an equalifij with (he whites, and this can- 
not be effected witliout intermarriage; therefore, you seek the amal- 
gamation of the races." But we never said that t!ie colored people 
cannot be elevated without intermarrying with the whites. This is 
not our doctrine ; it is the doctrine of our adversaries, — and a strange 
doctrine too. On the contrary, abolitionists believe and affirm, that 
if tljc colored people were raised from the condition of brutes to the 
condition of MEN, — if they were instructed in literature and science, 
in morals and the arts of civilized life, — if the marriage covenant 
among them were acknowledged sacred, and they were protected in 
all their domestic relations, — they would then seek alliance chiefly 
among themselves; and consequently amalgamation, to a very great 
extent would cease. 

Again, immediate emancipation is opposed on the supposition, 
that " it would place the enfranchised slaves in a condition worse 
than slavery itself;'.' that "they would be unable to provide for them- 
selves, if they were made free." But this objection we have already 
answered. The answer reads thus : " By immediate emancipation 
we do not mean that the slaves shall be turned loose upon the nation, 
etc., but we mean, that they shall be placed under a benevolent and 
disinterested supervison, which shall secure to them the right to ob- 
tain secular and religious knowledge, to worship God according to 
the dictates of their consciences, to accumulate wealth," &c. But 
we would not have them always under this supervision. In a little 
time they would obtain a sufficiency of secular knowledge to enable 
them to transact their own affairs, and then the supervision might be 
dispensed with. But if this be not satisfactory ; if it be urged that 
no such provision would be made ; that, therefore, the objection is 
not removed, we will appeal next to facts, in order to show that they 
could provide for themselves. 

Dr. Walsh states, that in Brazil, the benefits arising from the en- 
franchisement of six hundred thousand colored persons, " have dispo- 
sed the whites to think of making free the whole negro population." — 
[Vide Mrs. Child's Appeal, p. 92.] 

The mixed population of Sierra Leone, consisting of suddenly 
emancipated slaves — runaway slaves — criminal slaves — and degraded 
recaptured negroes, are, in their free condition, living in order, tran- 
quility, and comfort, and many of them in affluence. — [Idem, p. 90.] 

A Vermont gentleman who had been a slave-holder in Mississippi, 
and afterwards resident at Metamoras, in Mexico, speaking of the ab- 
olition of slavery in that republic, says, " The value of llie plantations 
was soon increased by the introduction of free labor. No one was 
made poor by it. It gave property to the servant, and increased the 
riches of the master." — [Idem, p. 97.] 

" The South African Commercial Advertiser of February 9th, 1831, 
says, " Three thousand prize negroes have received their /'/•eef/o7/t; four 
hundred in one day ; but not the least difficulty or disorder occurred : 
servants found masters — masteis hired servants : all gained homes, and 
at night scarcely an idler was to h,e seen." — [Idem, p. 9(5.] 
Halvey, in his Sketches of Hayti or St. Domingo, says, " It was an in- 
tcresting sight to behold (his class of the Haytians, now in possession 



2^ 

of iheir freedom, coming in groups to the market nearest which they 
resided, bringing the produce of their industry for sale ; and after- 
wards returning, carrying back the necessary articles of living which 
the disposal of their commodities had enabled thetn to purchase; all 
evidently cheerful and happy." — [lde?n, p. 89.] 

The manumitted slaves settled in Nova Scotia by the British Gov- 
ernment, at the close of the American Revolution, " led a harmless 
life, and gained the character of an industrious and honest people 
from their white neighbors."- 

At the close of the last American war, some hundreds of slaves 
who had escaped from their masters and joined the British standard, 
were shipped to Trinidad as free laborers ; but the planters of Trin- 
idad started an objection against receiving them : they " were sure 
that no free negroes would ever work, and therefore that the slaves 
in question would, if made free and settled among them, support them- 
selves by plunder." They were however received ; and "these very 
men," says Clarkson, " formerly slaves in the southern States of Amer- 
ica, and afterwards emancipated in a body at Trinidad, are now earn- 
ing their liveliliood, and with so much industry and good conduct, 
that the calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died 
away."f "Mr. Mitchel, a sugar-planter, who had resided twenty- 
seven years in Trinidad, and who is the superintendent of the libe- 
rated negroes there, says he knows of no instance of a manumitted 
slave not maintaining himself." — ISeeMrs. Childh Appeal, p. 91.] 

In 1793, liberty was proclaimed universally to the slaves in Guada- 
loupe ; and, " during their ten years of freedom, their governors bore 
testimony to their regular industry and uninlerrapted submission to 
tlie laws." — [See idem, p. 89.} 

By returns from fourteen of the Slavs Colonies, laid before the 
House af Commons in IS26, including a period of five years, from 
January 1, 1821, to December 31, 1825, it appears, that the propor- 
tion of while, to that of colored pauj)ers, in the same number of per- 
sons, was, in the Bahamas, nearly as two to one— in Barbadoes, as 
three hundred and nine to onfe — in Berbice, as twelve to one — in 
Dcmarara, as five to one — in Dominica, a.s nine to one — in Jamaica, 
as four to one — in Nevis, as twenty-eight to one — in Tortola, as four- 
teen to one — and in St. Christophers, as eight to one. 

" In short, in a population of free black and colored persons, amount- 
ing to from eighty thousand to ninety thousand, only two hundred and 
twenty-nine persons have received any relief whatever as paupers, 
during tlie years 1S21 to 1825 ; and these chiefly the concubines iand 
children of destitute whites; — while, of about sixty-five thousand 
whites, in the same ti.me, sixteen hundred and seventy-five received 
relief. The proportion therefore, of enfranchised persons receiving 
any kind of aid as paupers in the West Indies, is about one in three 
hundred and seventy : — whereas the proportion among the whites ol 
the West Indies, is about one in forty." — \_Vide idem, pp 94, 95.] 

Here are twenty-two cases of negro emancipation ; and not in one 
instance have the subjects of trial proved either unwilling or unable 
to maintain them.selves. In two of the above instances they are taken 

* Clarkson'-' Thoughts. Anti-Slavevy Reporter p. 25. t Se« Clarksoa's Thoughts, Ar.ti-SIavery 
Kcporier, p. "35. 

D 



i6 

from the southern States of America, and yet it is urged that the 
slaves of the South, who now maintain themselves and their masters, 
could not provide for themselves if they were made free ! 

Again, it is said by some, who admit that slavery is an evil and 
ought to be abolished, that all our exertions to abolish it will only 
serve to make the slave more stubborn, and the master more severe ; 
thus increasing, instead of mitigating the sufferings of the slave. 

To suppose that the benevolent interposition of the humane would 
tend to increase the obstinacy of the slave, is as ridiculous as it is ab- 
surd. He knows by experience that he cannot effect his own delive- 
rance : reason teaches, then, that he would hail with gratitude, the 
exertions of those who are laboring for his good ; and that instead of 
rivetting his own fetters more firmly, he would quietly suffer his 
friends to break them. We maintain, therefore, that no such conse- 
quence as obstinacy on the part of the slave will result. But we ad- 
mit that the agitation of the subject may, for a short time, serve to 
increase the violence of the oppressor ; yet this opposes no barrier to 
the progress to our cause : Indeed, it is decidedly in our favor; for 
such aggravated cruelty will serve to make slavery more detestable 
in the eyes of the people, and to hasten its overthrow. The expos- 
tulation of Moses with Pharaoh in behalf of his brethren, the Hebrews 
in bondage, had a similar effect : " And Pharaoh commanded the 
same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, 
Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore : 
let them go and gather straw for themselves."* Yet this increased 
severity returned upon the heads of ihe oppressors, that they were 
glad to " let the people go :" " And the Egyptians were urgent upon 
the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste ; 
for they said, We be all dead men."f Indeed, history I'f ems with 
like instances of encouragement for the oppressed. And notvvith- 
standing the sufferings of the slave may be a little more numerous 
and severe while the subject is in agitation, yet his freedom were a 
blessing even at such a price as this. A strange philanthropy indeed ! 
which, in order to save the present generation of slaves a little in- 
crease of suffering, would have the tremendous system of oppression 
go rolling onward, crushing and destroying, not only the present gen- 
eration, but all their posterity for ages yet to come ! 

Again, we hear another objector say, " I know the slaves have an 
inalienable right to freedom, and ought to be immediately emancipa- 
ted ; but the government of the United States has acknowledged and 
secured to the planters a legal right to hold slaves as property, and 
therefore it ought to compensate the planters for emancipating their 
slaves." 

Had the government of the United States instituted the system of 
slavery, and compelled the planters to vest their capital in slaves, they 
would have had a just claim on the government for compensation. — 
But this was not the case. Slavery existed prior to the formation of 
our national compact. The government is not therefore accountable 
for the introduction of slavery into this country : it is only accounta- 
ble for having allowed it to remain. The argument, therefore, in 
favor of compensation, must be simply this : Because the government 

* Exodus V. 6, 7. + Exodus xii. 33 



27 

of the United States has permitted the planters to hold slaves the9e 
fifty-eight years — because it has done the planters this favor, (if favor 
it may be called,) it ought also, now that slavery, like an old worn 
out horse, has nearly run its course, to do the planters one favor more, 
and buy slavery off their hands. 

But we maintain that no compensation should be given to the 
planters, emancipating their slaves — Because it would be a surren- 
der of the very principle on which all our action is based — that man 
CANNOT HOLD PROPERTY IN MAN J — Bccauso " Slavery is a crime, and 
therefore is not an article to be sold ; — Because the holders of slaires 
are not the just proprietors of what they claim : freeing the slaves is 
not depriving them of property, but restoring it to its rightful owners : 
it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave — restoring him 
to himself; — Because immediate and general emancipation would 
only destroy nominal, not real property : it would not amputate a limb 
or break a bone of the slaves, but by infusing motives into their 
breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the masters as free la- 
borers." 

It would be doubly unjust then, for the planters, emancipating their 
slaves, to receive any compensation. What ! must a man be hired to 
repent of his sins ? — to cease from robbery, outrage and wrong? Must 
he be hired to have mercy upon his own soul } Such wild, fantastic 
notions will find few advocates among sober and reflecting minds. 

Again, we are cited to the riots which have recently occurred at 
New- York, Philadelphia, and other places, and told that we may as 
well resign our abolition plans, or, at least, suspend our operations 
till the rising tide of public sentiment and indignation shall have 
passed away. But we answer, that those very riots are the legitimate 
offspring of slavery : they originated in prejudice against the people 
of color, and are nothing more than ebullitions o{ the hidden spirit of 
slavery. So far then, from relaxing our efforts at cutting down the 
tree which bears this bitter fruit, it ought to stimulate us to increas- 
ed exertion. 

If, in this land of freedom and of laws, the mouths of the people 
are to be muzzled by the arm of brute force; — if we may not enjoy 
freedom of speech and of the press — rights which are guaranteed to 
us by the Constitution of the United States; — if the will of an infuri- 
ated mob is to be the grand tribunaj of the day — we may as well bid 
adieu to American liberty! for the sun of freedom is set; — wasting, 
wailing, and the reign of despotism are near ! And now, sincethe 
high hand of tyranny has driven us, unaware, to the brink of destruc- 
tion, we are kindly informed that we may as well resign our abolition 
plans, or, at least, suspend our operations, till the public mind shall 
become enlightened — till public sentiment shall become reformed: — 
that is, we may as well give up all hope — quietly submit to our fate — 
and let slavery hurry us all together down the precipice of national 
destruction ; or, at least, retreat, and leave the field to the foe, in 
mawkish, silent insignificance, till the tyrant himself shall become an 
abolitionist. But, we ask, how is the public mind to become enlight- 
ened, and public sentiment reformed? How is the tyrant himself to 
become converted, if abolitionists suspend their operations, and no 
one speaks or writes upon the subject? Such cowardly resignation 



^8 

'CO our inemics is inimical to the chararrter oi' free Americans. It is 
not the "spirit of the pilgrims." It is the pagan Hindoo, stretching 
himself before the car of Juggernaut. 

Again, it is said, that "^/te South will brook no farther agitation of 
the subject — that the abolitionists mvst desist, or they uill dissolve th^ 
Union.^^ But the truth is, that slavlry is fast dissolving the Union — 
that-the abolitionists must persevere until this fruitful cause of dis- 
cord among the States be removed, or our republican government 
%vill soon be irretrievably lost. Already do the pillars of that fabric 
begin to tremble ; — often do we hear of complaints and threats of 
separation : and sliall we look on idly, and not make a single effort to 
arrest the onward progress of approaching ruin.-* No: it is the duty 
of every lover of his country to search out the cause, and to labor for 
its removal. The question therefore is. What is the cause of all this 
political discordance ? Now the effect cannot be produced • before 
the existence of the cause. The New-England Anti-Slavery Socie- 
ty* commenced its operations no longer ago than January, 1832, and 
not till a much later period, did the doctrine of immediate emanci- 
pation produce much excitement. But we heard forebodings of dis- 
solution and threats of separation long before this time. The forma- 
tion of Anti-Slavery Societies, therefore, is not the cause. What then 
is the cau:5e ? what, but the abhorrent system of slavery? 

Such a state of things, it is evident, cannot continue long ; for the 
cause which now works will continue to work, till it has worked the 
overthrow of the nation. It is our duty, therefore, to seek the remo- 
val of this cause ; and to seek it by means u hich cannot endanger the 
i;ecurity of our national compact. 

What course then shall we pursue? Shall we '^ colonize the FREE 
people of color residing in our country, in Africa," that SLAVERY 
may cease to be? Shall we remove the victims of oppression from the 
«cene of violence, and let the acclused system remain? Or shall we, 
by moral means, drive slavery from the country, and let its victims 
remain ? 

We consider that any institution which professes to aim, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, at the abolition of slavery, and does not acknowl- 
edge the right of the emancipated to a home in the land of their na- 
tivity, is not entitled to the confidence of a christian public, or the 
patronage of the American peof)le. Hence, we have no fellouship 
with the principles or plans of the American Colonization Society. — 
Not that we condemn the motives of those who support it : — under- 
stand us— it is not the men but the principles that we oppose. 

Indeed, we have no doubt that very many have contributed to its 
funds out of motives purely philanthropic, really supposing that they 
were aiding in works of benevolence. Yet no motives of respect for 
individuals can induce us to support or encourage an institution 
which banishes our own fellow-citizens to exile, for no other cause 
than the unholy prejudice of the whites against the complexion which 
God has given them ; nor even to connive at the oppressive tenden- 
cies of its operations. 

And now, without any design to impugn the motives of those who 
support the American Colonization Society, we will state briefly, and 

^ Th» oldest Anti-Piav»-rv Society in the T'nile'l States of whicli %vc };av^ nny knowledge 



2g 

as comprehensively as possible, some oi the reasons which induce us 
to oppose it, proving them, chiefly, from the Annual Reports of the 
Society, the African Repository,* and the speeches and writings of 
some of its leading members. 

Reason 1. — Because it censures the formation of Anti-Slavery So- 
cieties. 

proo/— "The Society" * * * « having dedared that it is in no vvise al- 
lied to any Abolition Society in America, or elsewhere, is ready, whenever there is 
need, to pass a censure on such Societies in America."— [S/jeecAo/" Mr. Hanisonof 
Virginia, Fifteenth Annual Report.] 

2. — Because it is pledged not to oppose the system of slavery. 

Proof. — " [t is no Abolition Society ; it addresses as yet arguments to no master, 
and disavows with horror the idea of offering temptations to any slave. It denies 
the design of attempting emancipation, either partial or general. — [" The Coloniza- 
tion Society vindicated." — African Repository, Vol. iii. p. 197.] 

" The Colonization Society, as such, have renounced wholly the name and the 
characteristics of Abolitionists. On this point they have been unjustly and injuri- 
ously slandered. Into their accounts the subject of emancipation does not enter 
at ail." — [".V. EP—ldem, p. 306.1 "From its origin, and throughout the whole 
period of its existence, it has constantly disclaimed all intention whatever of interfe- 
ring, in the smallest degree, with the rights of property, or the object of emancipa- 
tion, gradual or immediate." * « * "The Society presents to the 
American public no project of emancipation." — [Henry Clay^s Speech. — Idem, Vol. 
Yi. pp. 1.3, 17.] 

" It is not the object of this Society to liberate slaves, or touch the rights of prop- 
erty.' — [Report of the Kentucky Colonization Society. — Idem, p. 8].] 

" The emancipation of slaves or the amehoration of their condition, with the 
moral, intellectual, and political improvement of jieople of color within the United 
States, are subjects foreign to the powers of this Society." — [Address of the Board 
of Managers of the American Colonization Society, to its Auxiliary Societies.— Idem, 
Vol. vii. p. 29L] 

3. — Because it excuses slavery, and apologizes for slave-holders. 

Proof — " Slavery is an evil which is entailed upon the present generation of 
slave-holders, which they must suffer whether they will or not." — [African Reposi- 
tory, Vol. v. p 197.] 

" It [the Society] condemns no man because he is a slave-holder." — [Idem, Vol. 
vii. p. 200.] 

" The existence of slavery among us, though not at all to be objected to our south- 
ern brethren "as a fault, &c." — [Second Annucd Report of the JVeiv- York State Col- 
onization Socidy.^ 

" They do not perceive the propriety of confounding the crime of the kidnapper 
with the misfortune of the owner of imported and inherited slaves." — [JVorth 
American Revieiv, for July, 1832.] 

"Recognizing the constitutional and legitimate existence of slavery, it seeks not 
to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with the rights which it creates. Acknow- 
ledging the necessity by which its present continuance and the rigorous provisions 
for its maintenance are justified, &c " — ^Opinions in reply to Caius Cracchus, — 
African Repository, Vol. iii. p. 16.] 

"They are convinced that there are now hundreds of mastei"S who are so only 
from necessity," — [Memorial of the Society to the several States. — Idem, Vol. ii. p. 60 ] 

"Hundreds of humane and C/im<za7i slave-holders retain their fellow-men in bon- 
dage, because they are convinced that they can do no better." — [Address of the Mana- 
gers of the Colonization Society of Connecticut. — Idem, Vol. iv. p. 120.] 

4. — Because it regards the slaves as property, and therefore ac- 
knowledges the infernal principle, that man can hold property in man. 

Proof. — " We hold their slaves, as we hold their other property, sacred." — [Afri- 
can Repository, Vol. 1, p. 283.] 

* The Alrican Repository is a penodical published at Washington, under the direction of the Board 
of Managers of the American Colonization Society; our readers will understand, therefore, that the 
'inguage of the Repository is the language of the Society itself 



30 

■~To the sluve-hoKl'T, who fiad chnigod ujiori them the wicked design of inter- 
fering with the rights of property under thespecioiH pretext of removing a vicious 
and dangerous free population, they address themselves in a tone of concihation 
and sympatiiy. We know your rights, [say they] and we respect them" — [Idem, 
Vol. vii. p. ]00.] 

" It was proper again and again to repeat, that it was far from the intention of the 
Society to affect in any manner, the tenure by which a certain species of property is 
held. He was himself a slave-holder; and he considered that kind of property as 
inviolable as any other in the country." — [Speech of Henry Clay— First Ann. Report.] 

5. — Because it denounces the immediate abolition of slavery, as 
injustice to the masters, and no blessing to the slaves; as dangerous 
to society, and contrary to the requirements of Christianity. 

Proof. — "The inhabitants of the South cannot, and ought not, suddenly to eman- 
cipate their slaves, to remain atnong them free. Such a rneassre would be no bles- 
sing to the slaves, but the very madness of self-destruction to the whites." — [First 
Annual Report of the JSTew-Jersey Colonization Society.] 

'' Were the very spirit of angelic charity to pervade and fill the hearts of all the 
slave holders in our land, it would by no means require that all the slaves should 
be instantaneously liberated." — [African Repository, Vol. v. p. 329.] 

6. — Because it contends that emancipation should not take place 
without the simultaneous transportation of the liberated — thus leaving 
to the slave the clioice of banishment or perpetual servitude, and 
thus allowing that it is proper to cease from robbery and sin by a 
slow process. 

*^ Proof " — "All emancipation, to however small an extent, which permits the 
persons emancipated to remain in this country, is an evil which must increase with 
the increase of the operation." — [First Annual Report of the American Colonization 
Socidy. ] 

"Colonization, to be correct, must be beyond the seas — Emancipation, with the 
liberty to remain on this side of the Atlantic, is but an act of dreamy madness !" — 
[Thirteenth Annual Report of the American Colonization Society.] 

"The Society maintains, that no slave ought to receive his liberty except on con- 
trition of being excluded, not merely from the State which sets him loose, but from 
the tohole country; that is, of being colonized." — [,Yorth American Review, for July, 
183^.] 

7. — Because its measures are calculated to perpetuate the system 
•of slavery, to remove the fears of the slave-holder, and to increase the 
value of his stock of human beings. 

Proof. -"But is it not certain" * * * "that they [the people of the 
Southern States] will contribute more effectually to the continuance and strength 
of this system, [slavery] by removing those now free, than by any or all other meth- 
ods which can possibly be devised ?" — [African Repository, Vol. i. p. 227.] 

"So far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, the measure proposed 
wouhl prove one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in posses- 
session his own property." — [Speech of John Randolph, at the First Meeting of the 
American Colonization Society.] 

"The execution of its scheme would augment instead of diminishing the value of 
the property left behind." — [African Repository, Vol. ii. p. 344.] 

" So far from its having a dangerous tendency, when properly considered, it 
■would be viewed as an additional guard to our peculiar species of property," — [An 
Advocate of the Society, in the JVew Orleans Argus." 

"None "are obliged to follow our example; and those ivho do not, will find the val- 
ue of their negroes increased by the departure of ours." — [An Advocate of Colonization 
in the Western [Ky.) Luminary.] 

8. — Because it denies the power of the gospel to overcome preju- 
dice, and maintains that no moral or educational means can ever raise 
the colored population from their degradation to respectability and 
usefulness in this countrv. 



St 

"Proof. — " In every part of the United States, there is n broad and impassable 
line of demarkation between every man who has one drop of African blood in his 
veins, and every other class in the coinniunity. The habits, the feelings — all the 
prejudices of society — prejudices which neither refinement, nor argument, nor educa- 
tion, NOR RELIGION'" ITSELF, cau subduc — mark the people of color, whether bond 
or free, as the subjects of a degradation, inevitable and incurable. The African in this 
country belongs by birth to the very lowest station in society, and from that sta- 
tion he CAN NEVER RISE, be his talents, his enterprise, his virtues what they may." 
* * * "They constitute a class by themselves — a class out of which no 
individual can be elevated, and below v/hicli none can be depressed." — [African 
Repository, Vol. iv. pp. 118, 119.] 

" We have endeavored, but endeavored in vain, to restore them either to self re- 
spect,or to the respect of others.* It is not our fault that we have failed ; it is not theirs. 
It has resulted from a cause over which neither we, nor they, can ever have control : 
[that is to say, they have colored skins T!] Here, therefore, they must he forever 
debased ; — more than this, they must be forever useless ; — more even than this, th^y 
must be forever a nuisance, from which it were a blessing for society to be rid. And 
yet they, and they only, are qualified for colonizing Africa!''^ — [Idem, Vol. v. p. 27(i.] 

" Christianity cannot do for them here what it will do for them in Africa. Thi& 
is not the fault of the colored man, nor of the white man, nor of Christianity, but an 
ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE, t and uo Hiorc to be changed than the laws of nature !" 
[Fifteenth Annual Report, p. 17.] 

9. — Because, while it professes to remove those emigrants only, 
who go " with their own consent," to Africa, it cruelly persecutes the 
fi;ee people of color, by removing some, contrary to their own wish- 
es, to the sickly shore of Africa, where they become a prey to the 
disease of an «n-constitutional climate, and sometimes suffer muclt 
from want ; and by traducing the character of those who remain, 
representing them as useless, seditious, and dangerous to the com- 
munity. 

Proof — " And yet they senrout two shiploads of vagabonds not fit to go to sucb 
a place, and that were coerced away as truly as if it had been done witli a cart- 
whip." — [Speech of Robert J. Breckenridge, at the last Anniversary of the American C(h- 
Ionization Society.] 

"Dr. Mechlin, the Colonial Agent, who had just returned, stated, that of six hun- 
dred and forty nine emigrants who arrived last in Liberia, one hundred and thirty- 
four have died already." — [^Emancipator, Vol. ii. p. 1.] 

"Of ail misery and poverty, and all repining that my imagination had ever con- 
ceived, it had never reached what my ej'es now saw, and my ears heard. Hun- 
dreds of poor creatures, squallid, ragged, hungry, without employment — some actu- 
ally starving to death, and all praying most fervently that they might get home to- 
America once more. Even tho emancipated slave craved the boon of returning 
again to bondage that he might once more have the pains of hunger satisfied'! 
There are hundreds there who say they would rather come back and be slaves, than 
stay in Liberia. They would sit down and tell us their tale of suffering and of 
sorrow, with such a dejected and wo-begone aspect, that it would almost break our 
hearts. They would weep as they would talk of their sorrows here, and iheir joys 
in America ; and we mingled our tears freely with theirs. This part of the popula- 
tion included, as near as we could judge, two-thirds of the inhabitants of Monrovia.'* 
[Samuel Jones^ journal of a visit to Liberia — J. G. Birney^s Letter to T. J. Mills.] 

" What is the free black to the slave P....A standing, perpetual incitement to dis- 
content." — [Fifteenth Annual Report.] 

"They constitute a large mass of human beings, who hang as a vile excrescence 
upon society— the objects of a low debasing envy to our slaves, and to ourselves, of 
universal suspicion and distrust." — [African Repository, Vol. vii. p. 230.] 

" By removing these people, we rid ourselves of a large party who will always 
be ready to assist our slaves in any mischievous design which they may conceive."" 
—[Idem, Vol. i. p. 176.] 

•0. — Because it justifies keeping the slaves ignorant. 

* But how have they endeavored 10 do all this?— By reprssentmg them as dangerous, seditious 
and useless 1—By telhng the world that they can never rise, be their talents, their enierprise iheir 
Virtues what they may ? t How long will signers paln> ihfir sins upon Jehovah I 



32 



Proof. — "It is the business ol'the free (their safety requires it) to keep the slares 
m ignorance." — {Proceedings of JVew- York State Colonization Society, at Us second 
Anniveisai-y] 

" It is a well-established point, that the public safety forbids either the emancipa- 
tion or the genera! instruction of the slaves." — [Seventh Annual Report.] 

"If the <i-ee colored people were geiierally taught to read, it might be an induce- 
ment to them to remain in this country. We would offer them no such induce- 
ment." — [Southern Religiaus Telegraph, February 19, 1831.] 

1 1. — Because it justifies the atrocious laws which have been enact- 
ed against the free (;oh:)red and shive population. 

Proof. — " Such unhappily is the case ; but there is a necessity for it, [for oppres- 
sive laws,] and so long as they remain among us will that necessity continue." — 
[jYinth Annuid Report.] 

"Policy, and even the voice of humanity forbade the progress of manumission ; 
and the salutary hand of law came forward to co-operate with our convictions, and 
to arrest the flow of our feelings, and the ardor of our desires." — ^African Reposito- 
ry, Vol. iv. p. 168.] 

' " We do not ask that the provisions of our Constitution and Statute Book should 
be so modified as to relieve and .exalt the condition of the colored peo])le, whilst 
they remain with us. Let these provisions stand in all their rigor." — [Me- 
morial of the JVeiD-York Colonization Society.] 

12. — Because it deceives t!ie people and misleads the nation, by 
presenting one aspect at the South, and another entirely different at 
tiie North. While it is represented at the North as the only remedy 
yet devised for the evils of slavery, it is represented at the South as 
the most efficient means to stren«Tthen and perpetuate the system. — 
The people of the North are solicited to contribute on the score of 
benevolence, and tiiose of the South on the score o( self-interest. 

p ]{ o o r. 

SOUTH. 



NORTH. 

"We desh-e the uUer abolition of slavery in 
the speediest and best manner in which it can be 
accompUshed ; and in the lace of whatever friends 
or foes have said, or may hereafter say of the Col- 
onization Society, its principles, inoiives, or de- 
signs, we declare, that we recognize the right oi 
colored men -o freedom. ^Ve hold llie whole sys- 
tem of slavery in utter abhorrence. ^Ve do not 
admit the principle that man can he the property 
of man. We recognize also the right of tlie col- 
ored people to a home in this country : it is as re- 
ally tiieir country, as it is ours. Nor do we say 
they cannot in this country be elevated to an e- 
qualily, in all respects, with the white population. 
CJhristianily and otlier conspiring inflnences, can, 
and we trust, sooner or later, will thus elevate 
them."- [Fourteenlli Annual Report of the Ver- 
mont Col- Society] 

" We have hoped, anJ still hope, that the ope- 
rations of this Society would facilitate this desiia- 
ble object, [tlie abolition of slavery.] ^V'e know 
tliat many of its founders have regarded the plan 
of the Society as the only method yet devi.^cd that 
shed on thi^ object the lea.-t ray of hope." — \Thir 
teenth Anmiai Report of tlie'Vt. Col. Society. | 

'■ Who has not known a solicitor for a subscrip- 
tion to this or that benevolent object, suggest to 
the person solicited, that a donation for the propo- 
.■5cd object, would cither directly or indirectly pro- 
mole liis oivn interest ? We wish every man to 
be urged to give from motives purely benevolent. 
We wish every man to give for the noble, the ?od- 
likc purpose of doing goad toothers." — [Thir- 
teenth Annual Report of the VI. Col. Society.] 



" It disclaims, and always has disclaimed, all in- 
tention whatever, of interfering in llie smal est de- 
gree, direct or indirect, with THE RIGH'J'S 
OF SLAVE-HOLDERS, THE RIGHT OF 
PROPERTY, or the object of emancipation, 
gradual or immediate. It knows that THE 
OWNERS OF SLAVES ARE THE OWN- 
ERS AND NO ONE ELSE."— | An Adoocate 
of the Society, in the New- Orleans Argiis] 

'■ It is not therefore incumbent upon those who 
hold slaves, to set them at liberty, till some means 
are provided for their removal.'" — \African Re- 
pository, Vol. v. p. 89.] 

'•Is it not wise, then, for the free people of color 
and tlicir friends to .Tdmit,what cannot reasonably 
be doubted, that the people of color must, in this 
country, remain /br ages, pkobablv forevek, a 
separate and inferior cast, weighed down by caus- 
es, powerful, universal, inevitable; which neither 
legislation nor CHRISTIANITY can remove?" 
— [Idem, Vol. vii. p. 196.] 

"The TENDENCY of the scheme, and one of its 
OBJECTS, is to secure slave-holders, and the 
whole southern country, against certain evil con- 
sequences, growing out of the present three-fold 
mi.\tiire of our population." — [Address of the 
Rockbridge Col. Society, Idem, Vol. iv. p. '274] ; 

" Tiie slavc-holdei-, who is in danger ofliaving 
his slaves contaminated by their free friends of col- 
or, will not only be relieved from this danger, but 
the value of his slave will be enhanced." — [Hu- 
manitus, a Colonization Advocate. Baltimore, 
1820.'; 

•' It was on the ground of interest, therefore, 

THE MOST INDISPUT.'VBLE PECUNIAUY INTER- 
EST, that he addressed himself to the people and 
legislatures of the slave-holding States. "-(iSpefCft 
of Mr. Archer. — Fifteenth Ann. Report) 



33 

Thus the benevolence of the North and the selfishness of the South unite in one 
channel at Washington, the office of the Parent Society ; and on these mingled wa- 
ters, the free colored citizens of the United States are borne away to exile or to death ! 
Yes, the good people of the North are ignorantly binding stronger and stronger the 
galling chains of slavery on the very objects of their benevolence! It is time they 
should know it. 

13. — Because it was conceived, perfected, and is managed chiefly 
by slave-holders. 

Proof. — " About twelve years ago, some of the wisest men of the nation, mostly 
slave-holders, formed, in the city of Washington, the present American Colonization 
Society." — [Address of the Rockbridge Colonization Society. — Idem, Vol, iv. p. 274.] 

" They are, themselves, chiefly slave-holders, and live with all the ties of life binding 
them to a slave-holding community." — [Memorial of the Society to the several States — 
African Repository, Vol. ii. p. 60.] 

" Let me repeat, the friends of the Colonization Society, three-fourths of them 
ARE SLAVE-HOLDERS." — [The Colonization Society vindicated, Vol. iii. p. 202.] 

14. — Because it is held in abhorrence by the free people of color, 

wherever they possess liberty of speech and the means of intelligence, 

as a scheme full of evil to themselves and to their enslaved brethren. 

Proof. — The following Resolution, it will be perceived, expresses the mind of the 

free colored people throughout the nation : 

"Resolution passed by the National Colored Convention, held at Phila- 
delphia, IN 1831. — 'The Convention has not been unmindful of the operations of 
the American Colonization Society ; and it would respectfully suggest to that august 
body of learning, talent and worth, that, in our humble opinion, strengthened too, 
by the opinions of eminent men in this country, as well as in Europe, that they are 
pursuing the direct road to perpetual slavery, with all its unchristian-like concomi- 
tants, in this boasted land of freedom ; and, as citizens and men whose best blood 
is sapped to gain popularity for that institution, we would, in the most feeling man- 
ner, beg of them to desist : or, if we must be sacrificed to their philanthropy, we 
would rather die at home. Many of our fathers, and some of us, have fought and 
bled for the liberty, independence and peace which you now enjoy ; and, surely, it 
would be ungenerous and unfeeling in you to deny us an humble and quiet grave in 
that country which gave us birth."— [First A?inual Report of the .Yew England Anti- 
Slavery Society, p. 40.] 

Resolutions to similar effect have been passed by the colored inhabitants of Bos- 
ton, New- York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and no less than fifteen 
other cities and principal towns in the United States. 

15. — Because the Colony which it has established at Liberia facil- 
itates the slave-trade. 

Proof — "On the 6th of April, 1832, the British House of Commons ordered the 
printing of a document entitled ' Slave-Trade in Sierra Leone,' containing official ev- 
idence of the fact that the pirates engaged in the African slave-trade, are supplied 
from the stores of Sierra Leone and Liberia, with such articles as the infernal traf- 
fic demands!" — [Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. i. p. 77.] 

" That the African slave-traders do get thus supplied at Sierra Leone and Liberia, 
is matter of official evidence : and we know from the nature of human things, that 
they will get supplied in defiance of all law or j)recaution, as lo ng as the demand 

calls for the supply, and there are free shops stored with all they want at hand." 

[Prejudice Vincible, hy C. Sluart.'\ 

In short, we oppose the American Colonization Society, because 
it is the uncompromising enemy of the immediate abolition of slave- 
ry ; — because it excuses slavery as a necessary evil, and boldly ad- 
vocates its continuance ; — because it immolates the free people of col- 
or on the altar of prejudice, to pamper the pride of high-minded 
whites— thus adding fuel to the fire which we are endeavoring to ex- 
tinguish : or, in other words, because it is in our way* to the attack 

* Robert J. Breckenridg'-, an cminoiit advocate of the Colonization Society, in a speech at its last 
Anr.iversary, very pertinently reitiarked, " Let the slave-holder beware how he drives us awav. We 
stand in the breach for him, to kee^ off the abohtionist.' 

E 



34 



of slavery, and must be removed before our object can be attained 
If any of our readers apprehend that the character of the Coloniza- 
tion Society is not fairly represented by the above extracts, wc ask 
them to turn to those articles from which they arc taken, to the An- 
nual Reports and the African Repository, and to the speeches and 
writings, in general, of the Colonizationists, and read for themselves : 
we want no better arguments. It is our object to stir up inquiry. We 
do not ask our fellow-citizens to form their opinions upon our asser- 
tion, and to act upon a hear-say belief: we wish them to examine for 
themselves. It is not our design to do the Colonization Society in- 
justice, but we wish the public fully to understand its character. It 
has boasted that much good would result to Africa from the establish- 
ment of a colony at Liberia, — that it would civilize and evangelize 
that dark quarter of the globe. But the mode of civilizing and chris- 
tianizing a heathen land, by a colony, consisting of people too vicious 
AND DEPRAVED to livc in civiUzed society, and supplied with stores of 
RUM, GUNPOWDER, and sPEAR-poiNTED KNIVES, is prcpostcrous and 
wild. "Each emigrant," says Henry Clay, the champion of the So- 
ciety, " is a missionary, carrying with him credentials* in the holy 
cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions." But who are 
these emigrants, these missionaries ? The free people of color. — 
" They, and they only," says the African Repository, " are qualified 
for colonizing Africa." But how are they qualified ? Let the Socie- 
ty answer in its own words : 

"Free blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves themselves." — [African Re- 
posUory, Vol. ii. p. 328.] 
*' An anomalous race of beings, the most debased upon eai-th."-[7rf. Vol. vii. p. 230.] 

And how far has the Society succeeded in the accomplishment of 
this glorious enterprize ? The Rev. J. B. Pinney, Missionary to Libe- 
ria, in a letter dated February 20, 1833, says — 

" But two or three have hitherto done any thing scarcely towards agriculture. The 
wealthy find it easier to trade ; the poor suppose it degrading. * * * Notiiing 
has been done for the natives, hitherto, by the colonists, exce])t to educate a few 
who were in their families in the capacity of servants. * * * As little effort is 
made by the colonists to elevate them, as is usually made by the higher classes in 
the United States to better the condition of the lower." 

J. R. Dailey, a gentleman who has been for several years establish- 
ed as a merchant in Liberia, says that about four hundred tunsf 
of RUM are sold in Liberia in a year. J The Liberia Herald also 
shows that rum, gunpowder, muskets, and spear-pointed knives, are 
sold at Liberia as principal articles of commerce. 

In the "Herald" of" September 7th, 1832," the iT^^Rcverend.^ 
"C. M. Waring offers for sale," among other articles, 
" 1196 gallons Rum, 
" 250 kegs powder, 
" 140 Muskets, 

" 50 doz. black-handle spear-pointed knives." 
And this is the way in which the American Colonization Society is 
civilizing and evangelizing Africa ! 

But we have other evidence of a still more painful and revolting 
character. The following is an extract from the African Repository. 

* What are these credentials 7 rum, gunpowder, and spcnr-iiointed knives ? | Equal to 3000 bar 
ids. t Vide Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. i. ]>. 96. 



46 

It shows hoiv Africa is to become " the joy of many nations" " tlie 

praise of the whole earth." It shows that missionary effort is driven 
to the very heart, not^by the power oUruth, but by the force oi powder. 

The ffJ^Keverencil^O Mr. Ashmun, describing an engagement he 
had with the native tribes in the neighborhood of Liberia, says — 

" Eight hundred men were here pressed shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a 
form that a child might easily walk on their heads, from one end of the mass to the 
other, presenting in their rear a breadth of rank equal to twenty or thirty men, and 
all exposed to a gun of great power, raised on a pfatform at only from thirty to six- 
ty yards distance. Ol/^Every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of hu- 
man flesh !"«£^ 

Are the good people of this country, the professors of that religion 
which breathes " peace on earth and good will toward men," prepa- 
red, in view of facts like this, to say to Liberia, " Go on : and may the 
Lord prosper thee in thy works of benevolence ?" Are they prepared 
to give their money and their influence in aid of such anti-christian 
measures for diffusing gospel light ? We answer, No ! And yet many 
of them have done this, and still do it, simply because the facts are not 
known. If any of our readers still view the American Colonization 
Society as a benevolent insiiiuiion, and still entertain the idle expecta- 
tion that it will yet succeed in the accomplishment of its object, the 
removal of the entire colored population of this country to Africa, we 
ask their attention to a serious consideration of the following facts : — 
" The Society was organized in the year 1817. It has two hundred and eighteen 
Auxiliaries. The Legislatures of fourteen States have recommended it. Address- 
es in its favor have been heard from all our pulpits : and contributions have poured 
into its treasury from every quarter of the United States." 

It has been in operation nearly eighteen years, and has carried away 
nearly three thousand free people of color. The Society is now forty 
thousand dollars in debt,* and there are now nearly a million more 
colored people in the United States than there were in the year 1817. 
Now let the funds of the Society be replenished, so that it may re- 
move only the increase, and keep the number of the colored popula- 
tion stationary, and it would require five million six hundred thousand 
dollars a year, to secure our southern brethren against the danger of 
slave insurrections in this vvay.f Again, let the Society take hold in 
good earnest, and remove the whole at once, (for there is nothing 
gained by delay, since the blacks increase quite as fast as money,) and 
it would require more than two hundred million dollars to execute the 
plan-^a sum (to use the language of Hayne) sufficient to bankrupt 
the treasury of the world. When the Green Mountains can be cast 
by atoms into Lake Champlain, — when the Chesapeake can be drain- 
ed of its rushing waters by shipping them across the Atlantic and pour- 
ing them into the Mediterranean, — then may the friends of Coloniza- 
tion begin to hope ; then, but not till then, can they remove the col- 
ored population of the United States to Africa. 

Now what is our duty, respected fellow-citizens ? Is it to encour- 
age a Society which is rivetting the fetters of tyranny firmer and firm- 
er on two millions of American citizens, — which recognizes the assert- 
ed right of the master to control the slave — the assumed right of man to 

*"At ihe last Anniversary of tlie Parent Society, it was ascertained also, that the institution was in 
debt to the amount of about S45,000."-[Fi/'<ce»UA Annual Report of the Vermont Col. Society, p. 4.] 

t By a report of the Board of Managers, giving an account of the receipts and expenditures of the 
Society, and the number of emigrants sent out by it during the last thirteen years, it appears that the 
average expense per emigrant has been $80— not 20 or $25, as we have uniformly been told. 




36 

lord over God's creation, — as a right which we ought not to call in question ? Is it 
to encourage a Society which can shake hands with iniquity, and sympathize with 

^" '" ' ' ■ encour- 

idiee, — 
ej^ rights of the" colored 
man, to satiate the avaricious thirst of the white man for his colored brother's blood ? 
Is it to encourage a Society which invites us to aid in the iianishment of free-born 
citizens to a foreign land and sickly clitne, — which forbids discussion, and lays her 
cold, iron hand upon the mouth of him who dares to " plead the cause of the wid- 
ow and the fatherless ;" which speaks peace to a guilty nation while it slumbers 
over the groans of two million human beings ? 

But vv^hat is our duty ? Freemen, christians, patriots, awake ! While we have 
slumbered, the cries of the outraged and down-trodden slave have continually as- 
cended to the ear of the Lord of Sabbaoth. Fellow-citizens, awake ! The day is far 
spent, and the night approaches ; but it is yet day — therefore there is hope. For the 
sake then of our country, and for our own sake, let us arise. Let us lift our voices, 
and proclaim in the ears of a sinful nation the righteous law of God. Let us remem- 
ber that every moment we delay, our guilt is increasing ; — that the cry of the inno- 
cent laborer, whose hire we are keeping back by fraud, nay by force, is entering deep- 
er and deeper into the ear of the Lord of hosts. Let us remember that " preparing 
to do right, ic continuing to do wrong," — that our pretending sorrow for the suffer- 
ings of the slave, and repentance for our own sins, while we put far from us the evil 
day and break not off from them by righteousness, is mere mockery of Jehovah. Fel- 
low-citizens ! lovers of truth and justice ! why stand ye idle ? ■' He that is not for 
us, is against us." Come ye up then " to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
Let us first wash our own hands in innocence, and our garments from the stain of 
blood ; then let us faithfully discharge our duty towards our fellow-men. 

In relation to the American Colonization Society, let us make no compromise. For 
what fellowship hath light with darkness ? — truth with falsehood ? or liberty with op- 
pression ? But let us prove that we love the members which compose it, by our en- 
deavors to reclaim them. In relation to the free people of color, let us advocate 

their right to a home in their native country, and do what we can for their happiness 
and comfort /lere, instead of driving them into exile — into the grave-yards of Liberia. 
In relation to the master, let us observe the golden rule, " Whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Let us lift the voice of entreaty, of 
warning, and rebuke, that if possible we may wake him from his death-going sleep. 

In relation to the slave, let us plead his cause incessantly and cheerfully, unangered 
and unawed. Let us advocate- ' 3 right to liberty — to liberty at home, not in Liberia. 
Fellow-countiymen, ours is the business and the duty to abolish slavery in the Uni- 
ted States. Come, then — devote your energies to the work — engage with us in the 
glorious cause ot doing good to others. And when the slave-holders threaten, when 
the emissaries of Satan cry, " Let us alone ; what have you of the North to do with 
slavery P' let us not be disheartened, but rather let us remember that formerly, w hen 
thedevilscried "Let us alone ; what have vve to do with thee, thou -Tesus of Naza- 
reth ?" they were immediately cast out ; and let the reflection cheer us onward to 

increased exertion. And you, respected fellow-citizens, — partakers of the same 

common privileges with the men, — co-heirs to the same American liberty, — while 
you remember that woman was foremost in the fall and restoration of mankind,— that 
the Savior was born of a woman, nursed at her breast, and dandled on her knees, — 
while you remember that woman was last at his cross, and first at his grave,— how can 
you behold the stripes, and anguish, and death of a million fellow-sisters, idly and un- 
concerned ? After many years of unsuccesstul effort on the part of the philanthropists 
of England, to abolish slavery in the Brisisii Colonies, the ladies took the subject up, 
and, by united efforts in behalf of the oppressed, secured a speedy triumph to the 

cause of abolition throughout the British dominions. Now let the females of this 

favored country imitate their example ; — let them lend their enslaved colored sisters 
their sympalhies and aid : — let them unite in saying that slavery shall not be, and 
they will give the cause of abolition an impulse, which caff be neither stopped, nor 

retarded, but with the downfall of slavery. Come, then, fellow citizens, brothers, 

Fisters, all, — let us discharge our duty to our fellow creatures and our God, faithfully, 
and fearlessly , and leave the consequences to Him who ruleth in the kingdoms of 
the earth, — under a firm assurance that whatever it may cost us of labor or of scorn- 
it is the causeof truth and justice, and the cause of dod, and will prevail. 



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